


Kiss Me Goodnight (And Sleep)

by tylerisdun (lastmidtown)



Series: Potterverse [1]
Category: Bandom, Fall Out Boy, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, My Chemical Romance, Panic! at the Disco, Paramore, Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, Fluff, Homophobia, Homophobic Language, M/M, Multi, Suicide, also minor tw for rape, and homophobia, frank and gerard are the main characters obv but the rest make a lot of appearances, please give it a read if you're into harry potter or frerard or both, shitty summary sorry, slytherin! gerard and gryffindor! frank, this work has a major TW for suicide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-20
Updated: 2017-11-02
Packaged: 2018-12-17 15:16:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 42,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11854263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lastmidtown/pseuds/tylerisdun
Summary: Frank Iero, a normal child with a normal childhood, receives a letter on his eleventh birthday claiming that he's a wizard. Suddenly, he's whisked into the world of Hogwarts, where he gets to unlock his full potential as a wizard. However, he also meets the mysterious Slytherin Gerard Way, who becomes one of his best friends... and maybe, eventually, something more. He quickly learns that Hogwarts has its own prejudices, though, many of which will affect his life for years to come. (Frank/Gerard, Mikey/Pete, Brendon/Ryan, slight Josh/Tyler)





	1. Year One

When Frank Iero was just a few days shy of turning eleven years old, an actual _owl_ dropped by his house and left something that vaguely looked like a letter on his front porch.

 

Frank almost fell out of his chair in shock. His mother called from the bathroom, “Frankie, are you okay?”

 

“Fine, Mum,” Frank yelled back, scrambling up from his armchair near the living room window to find out what the hell the owl had brought. Life had certainly been strange since his mom split up with his father and moved the both of them to London, but this was a new level of bizarre altogether. There was an envelope sitting there with his name scrawled on it in a very fancy font, _Mr. F Iero_. Frank had never been addressed as a Mr. before, and it made him feel really grown up.

 

Turning to the back of the envelope, he noticed that there was a very fancy red seal. He ripped the envelope anyway, desperate to know what the envelope contained. Frank quickly scanned over the words, but they made no sense to him. _Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry… accepted…?_ Why would a wizarding school be offering him admission? Surely he wasn’t a wizard; he was the most average kid he had ever met, aside from his _somewhat_ short height. Well, there were a few times that things seemed to move without him ever touching them, and there was that time on the field trip in first grade that he walked through a wall, but he’d thought he’d just hit his head and hallucinated the whole thing. And his mum had agreed.

 

“MUM!” Frank bellowed, causing his mum to pop out of the shower wearing a bathrobe and a towel in her hair. “Mum, is this a prank? What does this letter mean?”

 

His mum took the letter he was holding and sighed. “Oh, Frankie… it came.”

 

So the letter was true, then, he assumed. “What does it mean?” Frank demanded. “I’m not a wizard.”

 

She sat down. “I had a feeling this might happen, but I wasn’t sure.”

 

“ _What_ might happen?” Frank said.

 

She ignored him. “Frankie, I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you before, okay? Please don’t hate me. It’s just… your father, he was a wizard, and it put a huge rift between us. That’s part of the reason we split up, you see. And of course there was a chance you’d turn out to be one, but I didn’t tell you because you would of course want to know things about it and I didn’t know very much. But I know this much: when wizard children turn eleven they get a letter of invitation to Hogwarts, a school just for wizard children. So I suppose you’re actually a wizard child. Congratulations.”

 

“Holy _shit_ ,” Frank breathed.

 

“Language,” his mother reprimanded weakly.

 

“I can do magic?” Frank inquired.

 

“Yes, that is what being a wizard means,” his mom said, a half-smile on her face.

 

“Am I going to go to Hogwarts, then?” Frank asked hopefully.

 

“Well, if you’re a wizard child, I don’t think there’s any real reason for me to stop you from going,” his mom told him. “But there’s so much for you to do before you go! We’ve got to go buy supplies. Your father used to tell me there were so many supplies you had to buy before school even started – robes and books and wands and such.”

 

“I’m going to get a _wand_?”

 

“Yes, Frankie, but we’ve really got to go right now,” his mom said, looking flustered. She ran a hand through her hair. “We’ve got so much shit to do. I hope there are directions on that damned letter of yours.”

 

“Language,” Frank reprimanded, handing the letter to his mom. She swatted him on the head, smiling fondly, and Frank forgot to be mad at her for not telling him about this _hugely important_ part of his life for eleven years.

 

For a little bit, at least.

 

.

 

Frank glanced at the ticket again. _Platform 9 ¾._ Yes, that was certainly what the ticket said, but he couldn’t seem to find that specific station. He stood in between platforms 9 and 10, glancing back and forth frantically. Time was ticking down, and his mother certainly hadn’t mentioned anything like this. It had taken them a while to find Diagon Alley to buy school supplies, too, but at least she’d been with him then and had been able to ask around a bit to get them there.

 

Now, however, he was on his own.

 

At least, he was until he saw two boys, one with long dark hair and one that looked a bit nerdy walk up. The dark-haired one grinned down at the other boy. “Ready, Mikey?”

 

“I’ve been waiting for this practically my whole life,” the nerdy one, presumably Mikey, said, smiling back. He grabbed onto the taller boy’s hand and the two of them just walked straight into the wall in front of Frank.

 

Frank gaped for a few seconds. Then he decided it was worth a try.

 

Clutching the handles to his baggage cart and clenching his eyes shut, he ran straight towards the wall in front of him. And then, suddenly, his eyes were opening, and he was on the other side of the wall, facing a giant train.

 

“Whoa,” he mumbled to himself, feeling completely out of his element.

 

In front of him were the two brothers that had passed through the wall before him, bickering quietly about what the best part of the train to sit in was. Despite his reservations, he figured it was better to know at least someone before he got to this alien school, and so he tapped the younger-looking nerdy boy, Mikey, on the shoulder. “Um, hi.”

 

“Hey,” Mikey said quietly.

 

“Um, I’m Frank… Frank Iero. I’m a first-year and I don’t really know anything about this school or anything, so I was hoping maybe you could help me,” Frank said, cheeks burning.

 

“Oh, are you Muggle-born then?” Mikey asked, smiling.

 

“Am I what?” Frank asked.

 

“Wow, you really are clueless,” Mikey said, but it sounded more astonished than insulting. “Muggle-born means, well, you’re the child of two non-magical people. Muggle means that you’re non-magical. That’s all.”

 

“Oh,” Frank said, considering. “Um, well, my mother’s not magical, but she said that my dad was… is, so I guess I’m half and half or something.”

 

“Half-blood,” Mikey said with a nod. “Well, I’m Mikey Way, and this is my brother Gerard. Both our parents are magical, so we’re purebloods, but that stuff doesn’t really matter to us. It just means we can help teach you about magic or whatever. I’m a first year too, but Gee here is a third year, so he might know a little more.”

 

Frank shifted his attention to the other boy, Gerard, who stared at him intently for a few seconds before twisting his face into a half-smile. “Nice to meet you,” Gerard said.

 

“You too,” Frank said nervously. “Um, I like your tie.” Gerard was wearing a silver and green tie that went very well with his robes.

 

“Ties are for the houses,” Mikey informed him. “There are four houses: Gryffindor for the brave, Hufflepuff for the caring, Ravenclaw for the sharp-witted, and Slytherin for the cunning. They all have different colours and stuff, you’ll see. Gerard’s a Slytherin, and some people like to say all Slytherins are evil or whatever, but Gee’s a softie so I don’t think so.”

 

Frank absently wondered what house he’d be in. He didn’t think of himself as particularly any of those traits, but he supposed he’d see once he got to Hogwarts. Hopefully they wouldn’t figure out he wasn’t very good at anything and kick him out of the school. He drew in an anxious breath.

 

Gerard lifted an eyebrow in what looked like bemusement. “People say all kinds of bullshit here. You’ll have to figure out what you think for yourself.”

 

“Anyways,” Mikey said before Frank could reply, “we need to get on the train now. You’re welcome to come with us.”

 

“Okay,” Frank said. “That’d, well, that’d be great. Thanks.”

 

He followed the two of them to their chosen compartment (Gerard, apparently, had won the argument about what was the best compartment), and entered to find another boy already sitting there. The first thing Frank noticed about him was the massive volume of hair he had, but the second thing Frank noticed was the huge smile spread across his face.

 

“Hey, Ray,” Gerard greeted him. “This is my brother, Mikey. I’ve told you about him. And um, this is Frank. We just met him, but he’s, um, he grew up with a Muggle parent so he doesn’t know anything about the wizarding world yet. Mikey, Frank, this is Ray, my Hufflepuff friend.”

 

Ray grinned. “Nice to meet ya, Mikey and Frank. Don’t feel too bad about not knowing much about the wizarding world, Frank; there are loads of Muggleborns here. You’ll catch on quickly. And we’ll all be here to catch you up as well.”

 

Frank smiled bashfully. Ray seemed nice, he thought to himself, and it was nice to feel as though someone would help him through this very new experience. “Nice to meet you too, Ray.”

 

“Are you two nervous about the Sorting Ceremony?” Ray asked.

 

Mikey scowled. “Gee refuses to tell me what they do during the ceremony, so I’m scared that we’re going to have to fight a dragon or something. I hope I survive.”

 

Ray shot Gerard a _look_ , but Gerard just smirked. Ray said, “Mikey, I promise you’ll survive.”

 

“Thanks, Ray,” Mikey said, then followed it up with a glare at his brother. “You’re an arsehole, Gee.”

 

Gerard grinned again. Ray stepped in with, “So, Frank, you don’t really sound like you’re from this area.”

 

“Uh, I’m not,” Frank said sheepishly. “I was born in America and I moved here when I was pretty young, so I guess I have sort of a hybrid accent.”

 

“That’s pretty cool,” Mikey said, eyes bright. “I always wanted to visit America. They have such interesting food.”

 

“I suppose they do,” Frank said. Everyone kind of looked at him, and he felt like a little bit of an arsehole himself, so he said, “Sorry if I’m not really talkative, I’m just bloody nervous about Hogwarts and everything since I don’t know shit about the wizarding world.”

 

“You’ll be fine, kid.” Gerard had stepped in for the first time in a while, which surprised him, since he’d have expected the reassurance from Ray. But somehow, the reassurance coming from Gerard made him more likely to believe it.

 

.

 

They made small talk for the rest of the ride. Gerard and Ray discussed people in their year, something called the House Cup, and classes for the upcoming year, while Frank and Mikey looked on in astonishment and occasionally contributed something about their past lives. When they arrived at last, they followed an extremely tall man who was bellowing “First years, this-a-way!” into a boat with two other first years that also looked extremely nervous.

 

“I’m Brendon,” one offered as they set sail.

 

“Ryan,” said the other.

 

They talked about potential houses and nerves until they began to approach the castle, which was bigger and far more intimidating than Frank was expecting, to be honest. Despite his intimidation, though, it was beautiful and he was sure his friends from his old school would be _so jealous_ if he could even tell them.

 

“It’s really huge,” Brendon said as they departed from the boat. “Bloody sure I’ll get lost within the first few days.” Ryan giggled from beside him.

 

A professor ushered all of the giggly first-years into a small room and told them they were to await their Sorting Ceremony. Frank could hear his heart thudding in his miniscule chest. After a few minutes of chit-chat, the professor marched them all into a humongous hall that had literal candles _floating_ on the ceiling. Frank looked around, astonished, and his eyes landed on Gerard sitting alone at a table full of kids in green and silver ties. He half-hoped he’d get into Slytherin.

 

The headmistress, who Mikey informed Frank was named McGonagall and ‘was not to be trifled with’, started out with a speech about respecting others and standing up in the face of injustice, which Frank thought was quite honourable. Afterwards, the professor said, “When your name is called, come up here and the Sorting Hat will be placed on your head.”

 

Frank looked bewilderedly at Mikey. _Sorting Hat?_ he mouthed. _How does that even work?_ Mikey just shrugged, looking as helplessly confused as Frank felt as the first girl was called forth.

 

The hat was placed on her head, and for a few seconds it simply muttered things like “right” and “okay” before it boomed “RAVENCLAW” in a deep voice. The table with the people in the blue ties clapped heartily as the girl timidly approached and took a seat. Frank mentally classed her amongst the smart people.

 

The cycle repeated as more and more kids were called up and sorted into different houses, and finally it was Frank’s turn. He approached the platform and met Gerard Way’s eyes. Perhaps he was going crazy, but he almost thought Gerard looked a little bit hopeful. He sighed as the Sorting Hat was placed onto his head.

 

“Frank Iero, huh,” the Sorting Hat whispered, and _holy shit_ it was literally speaking inside his head. The Hat laughed. “Yes, Frank, I’m here to see into your head and place you where you’ll benefit the most. I see that you’re not particularly clever, no offense, but you’re certainly brave and caring and you’ve got a bit of cunning in you. I’m sure you could thrive in any of the houses, and I see you’re conflicted as well. But I think I know where you’ll do best with that impulsiveness and that temper of yours. It’d better be GRYFFINDOR!”

 

 _Gryffindor,_ Frank repeated in shock. He didn’t know anyone there, but the table was hooting and hollering for him, so he went to join the table full of people in red and gold ties. As he sat down, he met Gerard’s eyes and shrugged apologetically.

 

He felt a lot better when, a few minutes later, after Brendon was sorted into Slytherin and Ryan into Hufflepuff, Mikey joined him in Gryffindor along with some other kid named Pete Wentz.

 

“Frank, we’re in the same house!” Mikey exclaimed excitedly. “This is going to be great. We’ll be in the same dorm and the same classes and, well, neither of us seem very athletic so maybe not the same Quidditch team, but we can pretend to be interested in it together.”

 

“Sounds great,” Frank said with a grin, and they were whirled off to look at their dorm room.

 

.

 

Although in Frank’s humble opinion, all classes were bloody boring, classes at Hogwarts held his interest a little more. The best ones were the ones that actually allowed him to practice magic. He was by no means the best in his class, but not the worst either, despite the fact that he was behind in a few classes.

 

In most of his classes, Mikey sat beside him with Pete Wentz on his other side. Pete Wentz was a funny, somewhat obnoxious kid. He was a half-blood like Frank, but Pete had lived with his wizard parent and therefore had an advantage over Frank when it came to wizarding knowledge. He was also very flamboyantly _gay_.

 

Even though Frank had met quite a few gay people over his year, it was something he’d never really thought about before. He was only eleven years old, after all, and he hadn’t really liked anyone before. It was strange to him that Pete had already figured all this out.

 

“You know, Brendon Urie isn’t bad looking for a Slytherin,” Pete babbled as they were walking to Charms. “I’m usually into older boys, really, but he’s not bad. Neither are you, Mikey.” He winked, making Mikey blush.

 

Frank was about to cut in and ask for _his_ ranking when some older boy walked by, his shoulder slamming into Pete’s face and knocking the younger boy to the ground. He hissed “faggots aren’t welcome here” under his breath and then continued skulking down the hallway, leaving three terrified younger boys in his midst.

 

Mikey gulped and extended a hand to help Pete up. “I’m sorry, Pete. That guy was an idiot.”

 

“That’s a bad word, isn’t it?” Frank asked.

 

“Yeah,” Pete said, brushing off his shoulder. “A bad word used to describe gay people. You know, I dealt with shit like this at my old school, but I didn’t think it would fucking happen here.”

 

Frank had never heard any eleven year old curse so much or sound so angry before. He wasn’t sure what to do. “It must be scary.”

 

“It is,” Pete said.

 

“Well, we’re here for you,” Mikey said, putting his hand on Pete’s shoulder. “Gryffindors gotta stick together, right?”

 

“Thanks, Mikey.” Pete smiled gratefully at Mikey.

 

Frank said a small prayer for himself and his friends.

 

.

 

After the first week of school, Frank lugged his books to the library to try and get some homework done. Mikey and Pete were exclaiming loudly about wizarding chess in the Gryffindor common room, so he was sure he wouldn’t get _any_ work done there.

 

“Frank,” someone called as he walked in. He lifted his head up to make eye contact with the one and only Gerard Way. Confused, but not entirely averse to talking to the older boy, Frank walked over to his table. Gerard gave a small nod. “How’s your first week of class going?”

 

“It’s been fine,” Frank said, sliding into the chair across from Gerard. “Been nice having your brother around since, you know, I don’t really know too much about this stuff. I’ve got to study a lot this weekend to stay on track.”

 

Gerard smirked. “Schoolwork is overrated.”

 

“I don’t want to fail out just yet,” Frank said, fighting the urge to smile back.

 

“How’s Mikey?” Gerard asked.

 

“You could ask him yourself,” Frank shot back.

 

“Well, I’m sure he’s probably avoiding me,” Gerard said with a sigh. “I’m his black sheep older brother in Slytherin. He doesn’t want to get that reputation in the very beginning.”

 

Frank processed this new piece of information, then frowned. “He’d be daft to avoid you for that reason. How did Slytherin get such a bad reputation anyway?”

 

Gerard glanced around, then leaned a little closer to Frank and whispered, “Voldemort was in Slytherin.”

 

“Who?”

 

Gerard sighed again. Frank felt a little dumber. “Voldemort, Frank. Only the most evil wizard to ever exist. He was defeated by Harry Potter just a few years ago. He was determined that only purebloods and, well, some halfbloods should exist, and he killed so many people. He was in Slytherin, so now no one trusts us.”

 

It was the most Frank had heard Gerard talk at one time. He blinked. “I guess that makes sense.”

 

“You’ll learn about it in History of Magic. But most wizarding kids grow up with that being drilled into their skulls, so of course my parents weren’t thrilled when I was put in Slytherin, and neither was Mikey.”

 

“You don’t seem evil,” Frank said honestly.

 

Gerard laughed. “I’d like to think I’m not. Just cunning and I have a bit of a taste for horror and shit like that.”

 

“I like horror,” Frank said, grinning.

 

“Vampires or werewolves?”

 

“Vampires, of course.”

 

“You’re not so bad, Frank Iero,” Gerard said. “But you should probably stay away from me in the future if you want your reputation here at Hogwarts to survive.”

 

“I don’t give a fuck about my reputation,” Frank said.

 

Gerard leaned back, a look of amusement on his face, and Frank wondered if Gerard had seen through his little act. His suspicions were confirmed when Gerard leaned forward again and ruffled his hair. “Someone’s a little badass.”

 

“Shut up,” Frank said, cheeks burning.

 

.

 

Though Frank hated to speak badly of Mikey, who had become his best friend, he found it a little ridiculous how vehemently Mikey tried to avoid his brother when in the public eye. He would meet up with him sometimes in the hallways when no one was around, but he refused to approach him at any other time. When Frank asked why, Mikey spewed some bullshit about how Gerard was in Slytherin and they were the “enemies” of Gryffindor or whatever.

 

Frank did not care quite so much about what other people thought. He would wave at Gerard from across the Great Hall and sometimes the two would have animated conversations about Muggle movies while strolling down the hallway in between classes. Sure, Frank got some weird stares from Gryffindors and Slytherins alike, but he wasn’t too concerned about it.

 

It took Frank until the Halloween feast to convince Mikey to sit with Gerard in the Great Hall. This was a huge deal. It took many conversations and Frank forcing Pete to back him up, and Frank had never been so proud. He hoped Gerard was grateful. Over the last few weeks, Gerard had been dropping little hints about missing Mikey, so Frank figured he could give him this for helping him study sometimes over the past few weeks.

 

Plus, Frank had a _huge_ bombshell that he dropped on Mikey to finally make Mikey give in.

 

Mikey scowled as Frank as they entered the Great Hall. “I hope you’re happy, Frank. No girl in Gryffindor is ever going to date me now.”

 

“Find a Slytherin girl then,” Frank said easily. He hadn’t really thought about the fact that associating with Gerard might ruin his dating prospects, but again, he didn’t really care. He wasn’t really interested in dating at the moment anyways.

 

“Or a guy,” Pete said with a wink.

 

The three of them walked over to the table, and Frank crossed over to sit beside Gerard while the other two sat across from them. Ray, who was on Gerard’s other side, nodded to them. Gerard smiled at Frank – a real, genuine smile, which was rare for him. “Happy birthday, Frankie.”

 

“Don’t call me that,” Frank said, elbowing Gerard.

 

“I made you a present – nothing big, but uh, here you go.” He nudges a scroll across the table towards Frank. Frank opens it and is confronted with his own face – all of his features in beautiful, dark detail on the yellowing page.

 

His face lit up.

 

“This is amazing, thanks, Gee,” Frank exclaimed happily, ignoring Gerard’s embarrassed response of ‘don’t call me that’. Pete gagged from across the table from them. Frank pointedly ignored him.

 

“So, Mikey, how’s school going?” Gerard asked his younger brother.

 

“It’s okay,” Mikey said. “I’m not a huge fan of Potions, but some of my other classes are fun, like Defence Against the Dark Arts.”

 

“I’ve never met anyone who didn’t like DADA besides Ray,” Gerard said with a smirk. “And some guys in my year who I’m pretty sure are actual post-Voldy Death Eaters.”

 

“You don’t like DADA?” Pete asked, turning to Ray.

 

“I’m just not good at it,” Ray said. “I prefer to work with like, plants and shit.”

 

“No shame in that,” Frank told him. “Everyone’s got their own interests. I'm not really sure what mine are yet, but we’ll see.”

 

Unexpectedly, Brendon Urie sat down on his other side. He raised an eyebrow at the Slytherin boy, who greeted him with a grin. “Frank Iero. I always knew you were meant for Slytherin. You’re not goody-goody enough for Gryffindor.”

 

“Shut up, Urie,” Frank retorted.

 

Gerard laughed. “He’s not wrong. You’ve got a potty mouth and a bad temper, kid.”

 

Frank rolled his eyes.

 

“Happy birthday, Frank,” Brendon said, still smiling a little too wide.

 

“Thanks,” Frank said begrudgingly, clutching at Gerard’s drawing in his hand. “Where’s your little boytoy?”

 

“He’s my best friend, you tosser,” Brendon retorted. “And he wanted to sit with his house, so who was I to argue. Even the ‘Puffs can have a bit of fun on Halloween. No offense, Toro.”

 

Ray grinned. “I’m sure we throw better parties than your slimy arse house… not that I would know, really, but I’ve _heard_.”

 

Brendon blinked, probably thinking about all the parties he’d be attending in the next few weeks, and then continued. “Anyways, even though I’m pretty young, I’ve been thinking and I might be gay. So I figured I might as well hang around the gay squad.”

 

Mikey sighed. “Exactly one of us is gay.”

 

“Debatable,” Brendon said, his eyes lingering in between Gerard and Frank. Frank mentally groaned.

 

“Can’t a boy just enjoy his birthday,” Frank said, half-joking, half-serious.

 

“Let’s talk about music, then,” Gerard said, and then their table, surprisingly including Brendon, launched into a discussion about whether the merits of various alternative artists and whether the wizarding world or the Muggle world had better up and coming artists. And then when he walked back to the dorm with Mikey and Pete, Mikey said, “Okay, maybe sitting at the Slytherin table isn’t the end of the world,” and Frank’s face lit up.

 

After that, they sat at the Slytherin table more and more often until they started to just blend in.

 

.

 

Aside from Mikey and Pete and a few other Gryffindors who were somewhat decent, Frank had never really fit in with his house. His house seemed to have an odd obsession with winning the Quidditch Cup and the House Cup and heterosexual relationships and all other kinds of shit that Frank just wasn’t interested in. Even though he performed some pranks that Pete claimed rivalled the Weasley twins’ and did all kinds of stunts like attempting a backflip off of his broomstick, things that Gerard called “stereotypical Gryffindor shit”, he still never really fit in with his house. But still he was surprised the first time some snotty older Gryffindor called him a ‘house traitor’ in the hall.

 

“Excuse me?” he asked, his blood running hot.

 

“You heard me,” the other boy answered. “You’re a house traitor, plain and simple. No self-respecting Gryffindor would ever hang out with Slytherins like that emo faggot Gerard Way.”

 

Frank’s eyes burned. He lifted his fist as if to punch the other guy, but the other guy grabbed Frank’s fist before Frank could even try. And then his fist connected with Frank’s face.

 

Frank was in the infirmary for the next few hours being treated for a mild concussion, and he refused to tell Gerard what the guy said to him.

 

.

 

Around Christmastime, Frank’s mom sent him an owl via Gerard’s owl Helena apologizing profusely and saying that she wouldn’t be home for the first week of Christmas holidays. Her new boyfriend was taking her on a surprise trip to Hawaii. Frank wasn’t entirely surprised, but he was at a complete loss for what to do the first week of Christmas holidays.

 

“You could come stay with us,” Mikey said when Frank complained to him.

 

“Really?” Frank tilted his head in surprise.

 

“Sure. We both live in London, so getting you home would be no bother at all. My parents wouldn’t really mind, especially since we’ve got a guest room and everything. And of course Gerard would be glad.”

 

It was all surprisingly easy, Frank found, and sure enough the next week he was entering the Way house in between Mikey and Gerard, with Gerard whispering in his ear, “I apologize in advance for our mum.”

 

“Gee! Mikey! I’m so glad to have you home!” Mrs. Way exclaimed as she pulled the two boys into a tight hug. “And you must be Frank! Mikey and Gerard have told me so much about you. I’m so glad they’re being so friendly at school now because of you. I do hope you’re keeping them in check.”

 

“Nice to meet you, Mrs. Way,” Frank said, extending a hand.

 

“Oh, we hug in this family,” Mrs. Way exclaimed, pulling Frank into the hug with the two Way brothers. Frank raised an eyebrow at Gerard – Mikey’d only hugged him once, back when he’d ended up in the infirmary, and Gerard had certainly never hugged him, so he had a hard time believing that sentiment.

 

“Now, boys, do take Frank up to his room for the week, and then you three can help me decorate the house,” Mrs. Way continued.

 

Mikey grabbed Frank’s arm and the three boys bolted to the other end of the house. Mikey told him, “Your room’s here, at the end of the hall. The bathroom’s just across from it, see. I’m just a few doors down; my name’s on my door. And then, uh, Gerard’s downstairs in the basement.”

 

“I’m a basement-dweller,” Gerard said proudly. “A certified vampire if you ask me.”

 

“Got it,” Frank said, tossing his bag down at the foot of his bed.

 

“Now come see our rooms,” Mikey demanded. And Frank followed.

 

.

 

That week of Christmas holidays was spent in frenzied decorating, cooking, eating, and gift-givings. Despite his insistence that he was not to be given anything, the Ways collaborated to give him a pretty comfy black jumper and a box of chocolates. And, of course, Gerard snuck in a festive drawing of Frank looking like an elf.

 

On the last night before Frank had to go home, the three boys gathered around the fireplace in the living room to warm their hands and sip at hot cocoa.

 

“Hopefully your mom’s there when you get back,” Mikey said, “and not on a vacation to Paris with her new baguette lover.”

 

Frank laughed. “If she’s not there I’m moving in permanently with your family.”

 

Gerard kicked him. “I don’t know if I can take another week of you constantly intruding on my hermit time.”

 

“It’ll be weird,” Frank said. “Being at home without you guys.”

 

Mikey snorted. “It’s literally only a week, you big baby.”

 

“How will he survive without us,” Gerard said dramatically.

 

“I guess I just got too used to you jerks constantly ganging up on me,” Frank pouted.

 

“We’ll wait for you at the station, Frankie,” Gerard promised.

 

And, after a week of his mother telling him all about her Hawaiian adventures and pretending to understand as Frank told her about all the magical things he learned in school, Gerard and Mikey were waiting for him at the station, and it felt like home.

 

.

 

Despite his usual disdain for routines, Frank quickly fell into one with Gerard, Mikey, Pete, and Ray. At first, he had to pull Mikey along over to the Slytherin table, but as time went on even that wasn’t necessary and Mikey came along willingly. Gerard was always sitting there with a stupidly wide smile on his face, and Ray gave them one of his signature Ray grins. Pete would make one of his comments about some dude in their year, causing Mikey to roll his eyes. Then Gerard, ever the peacemaker, would launch into some convoluted story about one of his classes, and Frank would secretly grin at him for avoiding a Pete and Mikey blowup. Sometimes Brendon Urie would show up and announce that he needed some “gay time”. All of them stopped denying it.

 

All five of them (and Brendon) were comfortable with the arrangement, but for whatever reason, no one else was. Even though Mikey, Pete, Ray, and Frank had been heading over to the Slytherin table for months, people still stared at them every day as if it was the first time.

 

Frank still wasn’t sure why. It could be the fact that he, Mikey, and Pete were from Slytherin’s rival house, but over the years since the end of the war, there had been plenty of Gryffindor and Slytherin friendships. It could also be because Pete was very flamboyantly gay (and of course Brendon loved to associate himself with them), and there were gay rumors floating around about the rest of them. As of lately, with slurs being hurled at him by a few people, he was beginning to think it was more of the second.

 

He wasn’t sure why it was such a big deal. Over the years, his mother had instilled in him that it wasn’t his place to judge others and that he should treat everyone with an equal amount of respect. He honestly didn’t care that Pete liked guys (or even Brendon, although Brendon was extremely obnoxious). He tried to go a little deeper than that. But apparently no one was raised quite like Frank.

 

It was beginning to grate on his nerves – not because of the names he was called, he’d unfortunately been able to tune those out after that first encounter, but because of the names other people called his friends. He was walking with Gerard in between classes when someone called, “Gross, Frank, get away from him or you might catch the faggot” and snickered.

 

Frank whirled around, heated. He might have been just a first year and _very_ tiny, but he was sure he could get in a quick punch before he was knocked out. “Who said that?” he growled.   


“Frankie,” Gerard said anxiously behind him. “It’s fine.” He put his hand on Frank’s shoulder. “I’m used to it.”

 

The person started snickering, which heated Frank up even more. “You shouldn’t have to be used to this,” Frank said helplessly.

 

“We’ll talk about it, okay,” Gerard said, moving his arm around Frank’s shoulders and ushering him down the hall with a surprising amount of strength and shooting a vicious glare at everyone that continued staring at them. Frank hoped he’d shoot up a couple more feet so he could finally be threatening too.

 

When they were out of earshot and too far for Frank to do anything stupid, Gerard told him, “I hate it too, Frank, but I’ve been thinking and maybe the best way to help people to understand is to advocate and show people who we really are. I don’t know. I don’t think that fighting is going to help us.”

 

Frank bit his lip, feeling his anger and desire to punch something steadily start to decrease. “I know,” he said, feeling defeated. “I know, Gee, you’re right, and I shouldn’t let my anger get the best of me or whatever. But I hate that they get to hurt you like that.”

 

“It’s fine,” Gerard said easily. “Besides, they’re not entirely wrong about me.”

 

“They’re what?” Frank said with wide eyes.

 

Gerard just winked.

 

.

 

Gerard’s fourteenth birthday rolled around and, even though he insisted he didn’t want anything, Mikey, Ray, and Frank collaborated to get him a cake and some new robes (because Mikey insisted he always smelled horrible, though Frank pointed out Gerard could just as well do a freshening spell if he wanted to).

 

“Do you feel any different now that you’re 14 and old?” Frank said with a smirk.

 

“Old?!” Gerard exclaimed. “I’m in the prime of my life, kid!”

 

“I’m sure your hormones are raging wild now,” Mikey said knowledgably.

 

“What’s wrong with me, then?” Pete exclaimed. “I’m only 11 and my hormones are running wild already!”

 

Gerard laughed. “I feel pretty much the same as yesterday. Just more big and manly, I guess.”

 

Mikey spat out his drink.

 

.

 

Frank’s first set of exams was not enjoyable in the least. He did not like sitting still to study, which annoyed his friends quite a bit. He spent too much of his valuable time sitting in a chair, book open on his lap, and peering out into the Forbidden Forest, wishing he was outside and jiggling his restless foot. His best studying was done when Gerard or Mikey would give in and offer to quiz him on his material.

 

He was pretty good at the charms and spells he had to do, though, which he figured would save his sorry arse in the end. He was mostly correct. He passed all of his subjects, such as his Transfiguration exam by making a plum dance across the table, and then it was officially summer holidays.

 

He had been dreading the summer holidays ever since Christmas holiday, because he realized how lonely holidays were. Unlike Gerard and Mikey, he didn’t have any siblings, meaning that his holidays were spent trying not to claw his eyes out. He was excited to finally get his guitar out and practice a little again, but besides that, there wasn’t much to look forward to in the coming weeks.

 

“You can come visit,” Mikey said hopefully.

 

“Yeah, probably,” Frank replied. “If you’ve got time for me, and well, if your mom will let you.”

 

“Of course she’ll let you come! She loves you,” Mikey told him, grinning.

 

“It’s cause you’re so small and adorable,” Pete teased.

 

“You’re like an inch taller than me,” Frank shot back. Then he sighed. “I hope so. I’m going to go mad if I’m stuck at home this summer.”

 

“Too late for that,” Mikey said with a laugh.

 

They met up with Gerard and Ray in one of the carts. Brendon joined them after a few minutes, toting the Hufflepuff kid Ryan Ross behind him and saying he needed a little more gay in his life before a very straight, very boring summer. Ryan just blushed and shrugged.

 

Although he was as obnoxious as usual, Frank noticed that Brendon seemed a little more aggressive than usual. He felt like he didn’t know Brendon enough to comment on it, but Mikey, who was oddly good at picking up on emotions and dealing with other people’s emotions, commented after a while, “Brendon, what’s going on?”

 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Brendon said.

 

“Come on, man.” Mikey sighed. “You seem upset about something. It’s fine if you don’t want to talk about it or whatever, but in case you do, we’re here for you. And we’re all pretty sensitive lads here. I mean, besides Pete.”

 

Pete stuck his tongue out at Mikey, and Brendon gave a nervous laugh. “Okay, you’re right. Just… promise me you won’t tell anyone. Or think any different of me.” Everyone nodded, so Brendon continued. “My parents are huge fucking homophobes. Like, the worst kind. Like, they’re _Mormons._ And if I ever told them… if they ever found out… well, they’d probably beat the hell out of me, or send me to conversion camp, or not let me go back to Hogwarts.” He bit his lip, running a hand through his hair. “And I’m not planning on telling them, you know, but I’m scared they’ll be able to tell or something when I get back. I feel different. I hope they don’t know why.”

 

Frank’s breath caught in his throat. A surge of pity went through him, but he tried to push it away. He’d thought about his sexuality a few times since Brendon and Pete’s announcements, though he still felt he was too young to know. Never once in his considerations had he thought about how his mother would react. He knew that she would love him no matter what. Not having that foundation… Frank inhaled deeply and resisted the urge to hug Brendon or something weird like that.

 

“I’m sorry,” Mikey said finally. “That makes a lot of sense, actually. There are lots of dumb people like that in the world. But we’re here for you, and we’ll only judge you on the stupid shit you do instead of, you know, you being gay.”

 

Brendon half-smiled. “Thanks.”

 

“Do you live in London?” Gerard asked.

 

Brendon shook his head miserably. “Manchester.”

 

“Ah, well, I was going to invite you to stay at our place if your parents find out, but unless you can take a train…” Gerard trailed off as Brendon shook his head, downcast.

 

“I’d invite you to stay at mine, but my mum would probably think you’re my boyfriend,” Pete offered. “And she’d be cool with it, but… you know.”

 

“Ew,” Brendon agreed, wrinkling up his nose. Frank felt the same way at the idea of having Pete Wentz as a boyfriend.

 

“I’m in London, too,” Frank offered dejectedly. Ray nodded to affirm the same.

 

“I’m in Leeds – that’s not too far, right?” Ryan said, his face lighting up.

 

“No, that’s great,” Brendon said, grinning back at Ryan. “Your mum wouldn’t mind too terribly?”

 

“I don’t see why she would,” Ryan told him. “And my dad’s not around much anymore, so…” He shrugged uncomfortably. “Plenty of room for you.”

 

Frank, Gerard, and Mikey exchanged a quick look, but decided not to press the issue any further. “I’m glad you’ll have somewhere safe to stay,” Mikey said. “But I really hope it won’t come to that.”

 

“Same,” Brendon mumbled.

 

Ray decided to change the subject then. “The thing I’m looking forward to the most back at my house is swimming. We’ve got a pool around the backside of the house and it’s my favourite investment of all time.”

 

“Wizards swim?” Frank asked, half-serious.

 

“Only in magical pools,” Ray retorted, laughing.

 

.

 

Three entire weeks of summer holidays passed pretty uneventfully. Frank’s mother was glad enough that he was home, but even still she spent a lot of nights out with her boyfriend, leaving Frank to his own devices. Since he was kind of a loner at his old school, he didn’t have loads of friends near him and Gerard and Mikey lived all the way across town. He spent a lot of time practicing guitar, playing video games, and even reading over his school books. Finally, after weeks of Frank complaining, his mom agreed to let him spend a week at the Ways’ house.

 

For some godforsaken reason, Gerard and Mikey didn’t have cell phones, so he had to ask them via _owl_ if he could come to visit. After a few days of correspondence and agreement from Gerard and Mikey’s mom, though, he was finally on a bus to their house, his luggage bumping against his legs.

 

Gerard and Mikey met him at the bus stop and both enveloped him in a hug, which Frank found a little bit strange – Gerard hadn’t ever hugged him before. He tried not to dwell too much on it as he greeted them both warmly and the three of them set off towards the Ways’ house.

 

“You two really ought to get cell phones,” Frank complained. “Trying to contact you is like trying to wrestle a damn anaconda or something.”

 

Gerard raised his eyebrows. Mikey laughed. “You’re right; you’re right. We wizards just don't think about these things.”

 

“Well, you should,” Frank said grumpily.

 

“At least you’re here now,” Mikey said cheerily.

 

“Yes, and at least we’ve got a Muggle TV so we can watch some horror movies and conjure up some popcorn,” Gerard said cheekily.

 

“Sounds like a good time to me,” Frank said.

 

After greeting Mrs. Way, the three boys lugged Frank’s trunk to the guest room and then took off for the basement. They settled down on Gerard’s bed, popcorn nestled in Frank’s lap since Frank was in the middle, and began to argue about horror movies.

 

“The only good horror movies are the old ones,” Gerard insisted. “Current day horror movies rely too much on like, loud music and jumpscares.”

 

Mikey wrinkled up his nose. “I thought _The Conjuring_ was a decent movie.”

 

“It was awful,” Frank said. “I laughed the whole way through it. It wasn’t scary at all.”

 

“Mikey had nightmares after watching it,” Gerard told Frank with a smug grin.

 

“Did _not_.” Mikey shoved Gerard.

 

“Let’s watch a horror movie from now, then, and see if it scares us,” Frank said.

 

Mikey chose some stupid movie about a doll, and he ended up with his face shoved in a pillow while Frank and Gerard critiqued the horror elements of the movie and laughed every time there was a jumpscare.

 

“I’m going to bed,” Mikey said once the movie was over.

 

“Don’t have nightmares about Annabelle,” Gerard teased. Mikey threw the pillow at him and stormed up the stairs.

 

Frank made a move to leave, but Gerard grabbed his arm. “You don’t have to leave yet if you don’t want,” he told him. “I’m not going to bed yet anyways.”

 

“Oh,” Frank said, and then shrugged. “Okay. Um. What do you want to do then?”

 

“We could watch another movie,” Gerard suggested. “Or, um, play some games… I just got a Wii. I know I’m really behind, but my parents didn’t know which system to get me…”

 

“Let’s play some Mario Kart,” Frank said, grinning.  


Gerard booted up the Wii and tossed him a controller with a nunchuck. Frank found that Gerard had a surprising amount of talent for a newcomer to the game, though Frank, of course, beat him by a _lot_ , having practiced for hours upon hours at home. Gerard sighed and set down his controller. “I’m a loser. I’ve let Yoshi down.”

 

“Shut _up_ ,” Frank protested, smacking him on the arm. “You’re not bad at all, Gee. I’m just a legend.”

 

“You shut up, you conceited little wanker,” Gerard retorted, but he was grinning from ear to ear so Frank could tell he wasn’t serious.

 

And at that moment, as Gerard booted up Super Smash Bros Brawl for their next battle, Frank considered for the first time that Gerard Way might just be becoming his best friend.

 

.

 

His time at the Ways’ house was spent playing video games (sometimes with both brothers, sometimes with just Gerard), watching movies, and just chatting. Rarely did they leave the house. Ray came over to visit twice, bearing snacks and butterbeer, a beverage Frank was really beginning to enjoy.

 

His time at the Ways’ also revealed that Frank and Gerard really enjoyed debating, much to Mikey’s chagrin. They debated the merits of Frankenstein and if it was still relevant in today’s day and age, whether bands fell into certain genres or not, and whether it was necessary for Gerard to have a cell phone. (Frank always had the opinion that it was 100% necessary. Gerard loved to fight him on that.)

 

Unfortunately, his time at the Ways’ was also over far too soon. The two boys carted Frank and his trunk off to the bus stop once again. Frank frowned. “D’you think we could convince my mum to let me stay another week?”

 

Gerard laughed. “I don’t think so, Frankie.”

 

“It’s not like Mum and I spend that much time together when I’m home anyways,” Frank grumbled. “It’s fine, I suppose. I’ll see you lot soon, right?”

 

“Of course!” Mikey exclaimed, giving Frank a quick hug. Gerard followed after Mikey pulled back, encasing Frank in his arms and his comforting, musky smell.

 

“It’s only a few more weeks,” he reassured Frank. “Then I’ll be there to make your life miserable every day.”

 

“Shut up, Gee,” Frank said, giggling despite himself. “See you soon.”

 

A few days later, Frank got a text from an unknown number that read: **i fcaking hate muggel techonology.** He laughed, and quickly replied: **gee how did u get my number?**

 

Gerard responded with **u gaev it to mee when u tld me to gte a phone already stupid**.

 

Frank said, **but this is a lot faster isn’t it?**

Gerard said, **i guess btu im not god at typig yet.**

Frank said, **loser** , and the two of them continued to text well into the night. It took Frank until he was about to sleep to realize that he hadn’t asked if Mikey had gotten a phone. He felt guilty for the rest of the night.


	2. Year Two

At the beginning of Frank’s second year, he realized that broom riding was a lot more fun than he’d originally thought. Maybe it was just that he hadn’t grown up riding a broom and, after nearly a year of practice, he was finally getting used to it. Maybe it was that he’d finally let go of his fear of falling off. Whatever it was, he was enjoying flying and he wasn’t bad at it either. Still, it came as a surprise when Gryffindor Quidditch captain, Andy Hurley, a fifth-year, caught Frank practicing flying. After Frank got off his broom, Andy approached Frank and asked him to try out for the team.

 

Frank decided that despite his lack of inclination for athletic activities, it wasn’t the worst idea. Quidditch, after all, required much less athletic ability than Muggle sports, and he wasn’t the most involved in school activities either. It could be nice to have an extracurricular.

 

When he brought it up to his friends, Gerard choked on his food. “I didn’t peg you for the Quidditch star type,” he said when Frank asked why.

 

“I’m not going to be a star,” Frank said. “I’m not even on the team yet! I just… Andy Hurley asked me to try out, that’s all.”

 

“You should go for it,” Mikey said encouragingly. “I think it’d be fun. I’d try out too but, uh, I’m pretty accident-prone on a broom.”

 

“Mikey and I will be your cheerleaders,” Pete joined in. “And that means I’ll get to see Mikey in a skirt, so now you have to do it.” Somehow, Frank thought, second-year Pete was even more obnoxious than first-year Pete.

 

“I still won’t cheer for Gryffindor, but go for it,” Brendon said with a shrug. Ryan Ross nodded beside him, and Ray smiled encouragingly.

 

“Well, if you insist,” Frank said with a grin. Then his brain turned immediately to self-doubting. “But what if they haven’t really seen me fly that much and I get there and they realize that I’m not good at all and then they reject me.”

 

“Then they’ll reject you.” Gerard shrugged. “You gotta get used to rejection, Frankie.”

 

Mikey cut his brother a side-eye. “But that won’t happen. Believe in yourself!”

 

“It’ll be fine,” Ray said reassuringly.

 

And so, with his team of misfit friends behind him to cheer him on, Frank Iero tried out for the Gryffindor Quidditch team. After a series of trials and realizing that his competition wasn’t that amazing, he was put into the role of Beater. At first, Frank found it a bit ridiculous considering how _tiny_ he was, but they said he’d “grow into his role” and that he “packed a big punch to be in such a tiny body”.

 

“That’s pretty fucking awesome,” Gerard told him afterwards during their usual between-classes walk. “Like, Frankie, I always knew you’d be kickass during your time here, even though I’ve only known you a year or so. Anyways. Just don’t get hurt, okay?”

 

“Do people actually get hurt playing Quidditch?” Frank asked.

 

“Well, yes,” Gerard said, as if it should have been obvious. “People get knocked off their brooms, break bones, go unconscious, all kinds of shit. No one’s, um, died yet or anything though.”

 

“So it turns out all right? Since you – we – have healers and everything?”

 

“Mostly,” Gerard answered, and then he was quiet for a little bit.

 

.

 

His first Quidditch game was kind of a big deal, so of course he asked all of his friends to be there on about five separate occasions. He was scared out of his mind for obvious reasons. They’d been practicing practically every day. It should’ve been engrained in his mind at this point. Still, the prospect of slamming around those heavy Bludgers in front of half of the _school_ was intimidating, and he could certainly use some support.

 

Which is why he was shocked when, at the start of the game as he rose into the air, he looked to the Gryffindor section and spotted just Mikey, Pete, and Brendon. They were playing against Hufflepuff, so he turned his head to the Hufflepuff section to see Ray and Ryan giving him a ‘secret’ thumbs-up. His head spun. Gerard hadn’t come? It was unthinkable – of course Gerard would come, he was basically Frank’s best friend at this point, but he wasn’t _there_.

 

Frank tried to shake the thoughts off and clutched his bat all the more tightly in his hands. The game started – the chasers zoomed off, and to his right the other beater, a well-built guy named Bob, gave him a thumbs-up as they released the Bludger. He sighed as he took off after the Bludger, trying to slam it away from his team’s players.

 

It was a fairly tense game. Both teams were pretty good, Frank knew, and so the score was basically tied most of the game. He succeeded in hitting the Bludger a couple of times, slamming it off a fair distance, and each time he did he heard Mikey and Pete screaming and shouting like idiots. A fond smile would take over his face, but then he’d remember Mikey’s traitorous brother and his heart would hurt just a little bit.

 

Finally, Hayley, the Gryffindor seeker, swept down to capture the Snitch, ending the game and giving Gryffindor a fairly large margin over Hufflepuff. _We won_ , Frank thought with wonder. _I haven’t fucked it up completely_. He joined the team camaraderie for a little bit, leaping around and shouting something about how lions eat badgers, but when Andy asked him to join the afterparty he had to shake his head.

 

“Ah, right, you’re still so young,” Andy said apologetically. “It’s a PG-13 afterparty, you’re right, preserve your innocence while you can.” He winked and whisked the rest of the team away.

 

Frank, still feeling the aftereffects of both the win and Gerard’s absence, darted back to the dorm room. No one was there, really; most of them were celebrating the win in some way, shape, or form. Frank had no clue where Mikey and Pete were. He didn’t feel like being alone, though, so he decided to check the library, simply because he couldn’t think of anywhere else people went at Hogwarts.

 

Unfortunately, though, the one person he’d been hoping to avoid for a little bit longer was sitting in there, peering at a book. His face lit up when he saw Frank walk in. “Frankie!” he called, and Frank was forced to walk over to him or risk making things extremely awkward.

 

“Gerard,” he said stiffly.

  
Gerard’s face fell, and for a second Frank kind of felt bad for hurting him before he remembered just how badly Gerard had hurt him. “What’s wrong?” Gerard asked. “You won the Quidditch game, right? You should be happy.”

 

“Well yes, we did win, but…” Frank trailed off. “I thought you were coming.”

 

“I never go to Quidditch games,” Gerard said with a shrug. “It’s, uh, it’s not really my scene.”

 

“But I was playing today,” Frank said, and Gerard simply raised his eyebrows as if to say, _yeah_ , _so_ , which made Frank a little angrier, and he exploded with a, “You fucking idiot, I wanted you to be there and you weren’t there, you absolute arsehole. I wanted you there for support! I thought you were my fucking best friend!”

 

“Oh,” Gerard said simply. He sat there in silence for a moment, probably considering what Frank had just shouted at him, and then he said, “Frankie. I’m really sorry. I had no idea you wanted me there that badly. I’m, uh, I’m not too good at this stuff, but I never meant to hurt you, you have to believe me. I’ll be there for every game from now on, I promise.”

 

And for the first time Frank realized that Gerard really wasn’t that great in social situations. He realized that, besides Frank, the only friend he’d made on his own in his three and a quarter years at Hogwarts was Ray, who was too nice to ever call him out on his bullshit and was friendly to practically everybody. It was certainly eye-opening. He certainly hadn’t meant to make Frank upset; he just didn’t know Frank would get upset. Frank blinked and felt a surge of affection for his idiot of a best friend.

 

“It’s fine, Gee,” Frank said wearily, settling into the armchair beside Gerard. “Sorry, I overreacted a little. I’m just really wound up right now, I guess.”

 

“But you won the game,” Gerard said, a little smile tugging at the side of his face. “I’m proud of you, kid.”

 

“You won’t be calling me kid when you see me with a huge bat ready to slam a Bludger,” Frank bragged, flexing one of his incredibly sore muscles.

 

“I don’t care if you’ve got a King Dedede hammer in your hand. You’re about as intimidating as Kirby,” Gerard said with a chuckle.

 

This sent Frank into a spiel about how Kirby is _very_ intimidating, actually, because he can use the powers of his enemies against them, and an hour later Mikey and Pete finally showed up to find them still arguing over who the best characters in Super Smash Bros were. Mikey rolled his eyes and announced that they were to partake in a celebratory kitchen raid. Frank didn’t refuse.

 

The next game, which, funnily enough, was against Slytherin, Frank’s eyes drifted over to the Gryffindor section to see Mikey, Pete, Ray, and _Gerard_ , Gerard who’d wrapped someone’s Gryffindor scarf around his neck, Gerard who was a House traitor for Frank’s sake, Gerard who had come to his first Quidditch game just to see Frank play.

 

He beamed from ear to ear and played even better than the first game.

 

.

 

Frank’s thirteenth birthday rolled around soon after his Quidditch debut. He turned thirteen with his friends crowded around him in the Gryffindor common room, garnering dirty looks from the small number of Gryffindors that were using the space to study or chat or whatever, but Frank didn’t care.

 

Gerard and Mikey had snatched him a little cake from the kitchen, which they presented to him on a paper plate. Frank grinned. “I feel like royalty.”

 

“Do you feel any different now that you’re thirteen?” Mikey, who had already turned thirteen at the _very_ beginning of the year and should very well know the answer to his own question, asked.

 

“No,” Frank told him.

 

Pete groaned. “I was hoping when I hit thirteen I’d reach a new height of greatness.”

 

“More like a new low,” Mikey said. Pete elbowed him.

 

Gerard said, “This is for you, but you’ll have to open it later.” He held out a messily wrapped present.

 

Frank accepted the gift and shot Gerard a questioning look, but Gerard avoided his gaze. They sat there for a few more minutes, chatting about classes and Quidditch, before Frank said, “It’s getting late _and_ it’s a school night. You all should go to bed.”

 

“It’s the night before Halloween; I think they’ll understand.” Mikey shrugged.

 

“Plus, I’ll just drink coffee tomorrow. Lots and lots of it,” Gerard said, grinning over at his little brother who smiled back.

 

“I didn’t even know wizards _drunk_ coffee,” Frank answered. His mother was constantly gulping down mugs and mugs of coffee to stay awake, but he’d never noticed Gerard or Mikey drink it. Maybe he was just going crazy.

 

“Here at Hogwarts you just have to know how to get it,” Gerard answered mysteriously.

 

They stayed up until two AM just talking. After Mikey, Pete, Ray, Brendon, and Ryan finally headed off to bed, Gerard stayed behind to watch him open his gift, which ended up being a very cool drawing of Frank and a four-leaf clover inside of a charm on a necklace.

 

“I heard in Muggle studies that Muggles believe four-leaf clovers are good luck,” Gerard said, scratching the back of his neck. “I put an amateur protection charm on it as well. I figured it couldn’t hurt for Quidditch and all.”

 

In the morning, Gerard came over to their table with two mugs and placed one in front of Frank, which Frank was extremely grateful for. It turned out Frank and caffeine didn’t mix well, though, because by the end of Charms class Frank was practically bouncing off the walls and Mikey was ready to murder him in cold blood.

 

“How was I supposed to know?” Gerard asked when Mikey complained to him in the corridor. “We’re just fine when we drink coffee.”

 

“We’re calm people generally!” Mikey raged. “Frank’s a bundle of energy, like, 24/7, and now you’ve just upped that by 200%!”

 

“It’s true,” Frank cut in, grinning. “I mean, I know that I kind of babble a lot, especially when I’m with Gerard because he really likes to argue, but right now I just have all this energy inside of me and I need to get it out or else I’ll probably get thrown out of class or maybe even _school_ , I know some of the teachers think I’m a bad influence or like a bad egg or something already, so I probably shouldn’t be so talkative during class, but I don’t really know how else to get all of this energy out you know?”

 

Mikey, Gerard, and Ray just stared at him. He shrugged. “Sorry. The caffeine is really really getting to me.”

 

“Maybe I should take him on a walk,” Gerard said cautiously.

 

“Get him to class on time,” Mikey said, somewhat menacingly, and then Gerard was yanking Frank to his feet. The two of them exited the Great Hall, Frank still bouncing with every step he took.

 

“We could race,” Frank said with a grin. “Though I’m tiny and quick so I would probably beat you. Or we could play tag, but I don’t know, tag might get boring with only two people. Or we could…”

 

“Or we could just walk,” Gerard cut him off, smiling gently at him.

 

Frank nodded. “Okay, okay, fine. I was just thinking it might be fun, but then again you seem pretty tired so maybe not.”

 

“Remind me never to let anyone give you caffeine again, no matter how tired you are,” Gerard said wearily. He continued with, “You’re thirteen now, huh? All big and bad.”

 

“I’m tiny, actually,” Frank corrected him. “And anyways being thirteen is really confusing, like, now that I’m a teenager I feel like I should have some idea what I want to do, but I really have no idea. And then last year finding out that I’m a _wizard_ – I have no idea what wizards do for careers! Besides, like, professors and shit, and I think I’d be a shitty professor, don’t you? You might make a good professor, though. You’re pretty patient.”

 

Gerard shrugged. “Maybe. But, Frank, you’re 13 years old. You’ve got loads of time to figure out what and who you want to be. Years and years.”

 

“I guess,” Frank said with a small sigh. “I just don’t want to mess it up, you know? And I don’t know, Pete and Brendon are already so comfortable with who they are, and I don’t even know which _gender_ I like. I feel like I’m so behind.”

 

“It’ll come to you,” Gerard said. Frank realized with a start that Gerard had never really talked about whether he was gay or straight or anything. People at Hogwarts seemed to be of the opinion that he was gay, but he’d never really confirmed as much to Frank and Frank hadn’t really talked to Mikey about it. Frank wanted to ask, but he wasn’t really sure how to.

 

“Okay,” Frank said. “I really hope so. Um, anyways, what do you think they’ll serve for the feast tonight? Is it the same thing every year?”

 

“Basically. I wonder if I told them it was your birthday, if they’d fix something special for you.”

 

“Don’t do that!” Frank shrieked. “I’m already weird enough, the edgy looking kid with a birthday on _Halloween_ , of all days. If they add a Halloween course for me it’ll just make me look even weirder.”

 

Gerard grinned. “Oh, I wrote the book on weird.”

 

“I don’t even think you’re that weird,” Frank said, examining Gerard. Sure, his hair was a little bit messy, and he was a typically quiet Slytherin, but besides that he was just an average teenage boy, right? “How did everyone start thinking that?”

 

“Well,” Gerard started in, “my first year someone spread a rumour that I didn’t shower. Second year, of course, people started spreading around that I was gay, and last year some people were saying I was a Death Eater – thank Merlin that didn’t get around to you, but I suppose they figured you were too Gryffindor to even consider joining the Dark Army. Now they’re saying I’m pretty much Voldemort reborn.”

 

“Oh, please.” Frank snorted. “You’re like a big fluffy bunny or some shit. As if you’d ever hurt anyone.”

 

“Not everyone knows me like you, Frankie,” Gerard reminded him. Frank beamed back, and Gerard told him, “Well, it looks like the caffeine’s worn off a bit since you’re not talking my ear off. You should get to class.”

 

“Yes, _Mum_ ,” Frank said with an eye roll.

 

As they walked to class, Frank noticed for the first time that people literally parted like the Red Sea when they walked by. Gerard quirked an eyebrow at him, and Frank wondered how in the world all these people were so horrifically wrong and yet had no idea.

 

.

 

“Hey, Gee,” Mikey said as he, Frank, and Pete slid into their regular seats at the Slytherin table. “I didn’t know you had a girlfriend.”

 

The words registered in Frank’s brain and for a minute he was shocked. Could Gerard have really gotten a girlfriend without Frank catching on to it? When would he have had the time? Was he straight? Frank’s mind was racing, trying to piece together this piece of new information, when Gerard’s voice interrupted his wild mind.

 

“I have a what?” Gerard sounded genuinely bewildered. Frank almost laughed. So maybe it wasn’t true then.

 

“A girlfriend,” Mikey said. “That girl, Lindsey, that’s in your house. She was, um, asking about you.”

 

“I helped her with her potion the other day,” Gerard said.

 

“Yeah, well, she thinks you’re cute,” Mikey told him. “And she’s really pretty and all.”

 

“That’s nice,” Gerard said.

 

“ _That’s nice?_ ” Mikey exclaimed. Pete and Frank shared an amused glance.

 

“Yeah, um, she’s not really my type, Mikes,” Gerard said.

 

“Not your type?!” Mikey yelped. “Gee, she’s gorgeous, she’s badass, she wears copious amounts of eyeliner… what else is there to want?”

 

“She’s, um, not a boy, Mikey,” Gerard said.

 

And there it was.

 

Mikey choked on air. Frank’s eyes widened. Pete high-fived Brendon, and Ryan just laughed knowingly.

 

So Gerard _was_ into boys. Frank had wondered for a long time, and he suddenly felt a little sad. All the things that people were saying about him – they weren’t true, not by any means, but they did have some foundation in reality. That had to kill Gerard.

 

Frank made himself snap back into reality, where Mikey was saying, “You never told me you were actually gay, Gee!”

 

“I thought everyone knew,” Gerard said, a surprised expression still on his face.

 

“I knew,” Pete said.

 

“Shut up, Pete,” Mikey said, grumpily. “So… I guess I should tell Lindsey it’s a no-go then.”

 

“Well, yeah,” Gerard said. “And, uh, tell her I’m sorry. I never meant to lead her on or anything.”

 

Frank laughed. Gerard looked at him, confused, and he just said, “You’re too good for this world, Gerard Way.”

 

Mikey gagged.

 

.

 

Gerard and Frank rarely ever fought. They argued quite a bit, but mostly about silly, inconsequential things, like whether a duck or a goose would win in a fight (Frank argued that the goose would certainly win, but Gerard disagreed for whatever reason) or whether Superman or Batman was the worse superhero. They hardly ever actually got angry at each other, though.

 

That was, until one night a few days before Christmas break.

 

“I don’t want to go home,” Frank told Gerard. The two were perched on the stairs to the Gryffindor common room, inconveniencing quite a few Gryffindors, but their complaining somehow immediately ceased the minute Gerard “Voldemort the Second” Way glared at them.

 

“You’ll be okay,” Gerard told him, placing a sympathetic hand on his shoulder.

 

“I won’t, though.” Frank frowned. “It’s the worst, being home.”

 

“Well, of course you’re not going to have a good time if you think like that,” Gerard told him. “Maybe you should try going into it thinking positively and it’ll go by quicker and be more fun for you.”

 

“Yeah, I’ll think positive about sitting at home all break, having zero contact with the wizarding world, and not seeing any of my friends, and suddenly it’ll become tolerable,” Frank said with an eye roll. “Thanks for that great advice, Gee.”

 

“You don’t have to be an arse about it,” Gerard shot back.

 

“You’re calling me an arse?” Frank barked back with an alarming amount of animosity. “You’re the one who gets to go back home and live your life as a fucking wizard but when I get home it’s suddenly like the past year and a half has been a dream and I’m a ‘normal Muggle lad’ again. I get to live a _lie_ while you go home and get to be around your perfect wizarding family with your two parents and I don’t even know where my dad is anymore but yeah, it’s so easy, right, I can just think positively and it’ll be fixed.”

 

“I think you’re overreacting a bit,” Gerard retorted.

 

Hot blood coursed through Frank’s veins. He couldn’t think straight, but he spat out, “Fuck you, Gerard. You’re a presumptuous wanker and I’d be stoked if you got the fuck out of my life forever.” He spun on his heels, fighting the urge to punch Gerard square in the jaw. He’d done it a few times in primary school and gotten off with minimal punishment, but he was older now and certainly didn’t want to risk it here at Hogwarts.

 

Gerard didn’t call after him as he left. He wasn’t really expecting Gerard to anyways.

 

.

 

Mikey was not amused in the least.

 

“Frank, you cursed at and insulted my brother,” he said coldly.

 

“I did,” Frank said. It wasn’t like he could really deny it at this point. “If it makes you feel any better, I feel horrible about it.”

 

“Not really, funnily enough,” Mikey said crossly. “Look, Frank Iero, I like you. You know that. You’re one of my best friends and you’re probably Gee’s favorite person in the entire world. But next time you hurt my brother like this, I’m going to have no mercy on you, are we clear?”

 

Frank knew that, in a hand-to-hand fight, he could probably beat the extraordinarily thin Mikey Way. He also knew that he was not willing to test this theory, especially when Mikey Way was looking at him with eyes that threatened to burn through his very soul. He gulped. “Got it.”

 

“Now go find my brother and make things right,” Mikey said. His eyes softened a little. “Maybe then he’ll stop sulking around in his dorm room. You’re both idiots. I don’t know why I put up with you.” He shot Frank a _look_ , and Frank scrambled up, practically running out of the Gryffindor common room.

 

In all of his time of knowing Gerard, Frank had never been to the Slytherin dorms before. Gerard had come to the Gryffindor dorms since Mikey, Pete, and Frank were all in Gryffindor, but they had just never planned it the other way around. He felt very apprehensive as he walked up to the Slytherin painting, mind racking his brain for any clues Gerard might have given him as to what the password could be.

 

And then Brendon Urie waltzed up.

 

“Frank,” he exclaimed, his voice and body in the highest gear as per usual. “What’s going on? I wouldn’t expect to see you around here. Can I help you?”

 

Frank sighed. “Hey, Bren. Um, Gerard and I got in a fight or some shit, so I really need to apologize to him. Could you maybe let me in?”

 

“Of course!” Brendon exclaimed giddily. Despite Frank’s apprehensions that he would want a full rundown of the scenario, for once in Brendon’s life the guy took a hint and just gave the password, “serpent superiority”, to let them both in.

 

Frank grinned at Brendon. “Thanks, Urie. I owe you.”

 

“You sure do, Iero,” Brendon said with a wink as he waltzed away to do who-knows-what.

 

Frank’s new mission was to get to Gerard’s dorm room. He navigated through the common room, ignoring the pointed glares from grungy looking students in dark corners, and made it to what looked like a dorm room. To his relief, he spotted a head with hazel eyes in one of the beds. The eyes met his for a split second before ducking back under the covers, much to Frank’s chagrin.

 

“Gerard, I know that’s you,” he said wearily.

 

“Go away,” came from under the covers.

 

“I’m here to apologize, all right?” he said, somewhat heated already, but pleading with his mind to take it down a few notches.

 

Gerard’s head poked out from the covers a little bit. “Mikey sent you,” he said stoically.

 

“Well, he told me where you were, yes, but I came because I wanted to,” Frank explained. “I missed you, Gee. And no matter what I say when I’m angry, I could never have you out of my life forever. I'm really sorry.”

 

“It’s fine, Frankie,” Gerard said with an exhale. “I’m sorry too, okay? I was being kind of an arse about it. I know it must be incredibly rough to be home and not a part of the wizarding world. I guess I just didn’t know it affected you that badly. I’ll try to be more understanding.”

 

“I was much meaner, Gee, don’t even worry about it,” Frank said, sitting next to him on the bed. Gerard grabbed his hand, intertwining their fingers, which caught Frank by surprise. Gerard wasn’t usually so physically affectionate with him – sometimes with Mikey, but Frank figured that kind of familiarity happened through their 13 years of knowing each other.

 

“Did Mikey threaten you?” Gerard asked.

 

“He said if I ever said shit like that to you again, he’d have no mercy on me,” Frank said, trying not to laugh.

 

“Hm,” Gerard said. “I think you could probably take Mikey. I mean, you’re a beater, and he doesn’t… well, I don’t think he can run for more than two minutes without losing his breath.”

 

“But if he brings magic into it, I’m done for,” Frank groaned.

 

“You’re not _that_ at magic, Frankie,” Gerard reassured him. “But, well, yeah. Avoid pissing me and Mikey off in the future.”

 

“Will do,” Frank said, and Gerard squeezed his hand.

 

.

 

Winter break was about as torturous as Frank had predicted, but, as Gerard predicted, Frank survived it. And then he was thrown into the second half of his second year.

 

Second year wasn’t all that different from first year, Frank thought. They weren’t at the bottom of the school anymore, which was quite nice, and they were allowed to have brooms and join the Quidditch teams, but that was about it. Despite his associations with Gerard, who was still a school pariah due to the (entirely founded) rumours about him being gay and the (entirely unfounded) rumours about him being Voldemort, being a Beater awarded Frank a certain amount of social prowess and people tended to leave him alone. Some people even avoided him out of fear of his burgeoning Beater muscles, which his friends found hilarious.

 

Which is why he felt a certain amount of responsibility upon discovering some tiny first-year Ravenclaw being threatened in a corridor by some skinny but tall Slytherin kid in his year.

 

“Hey,” Frank yelled as he approached the two. “Hey! Leave the kid alone.”

 

The kid met his eyes in recognition. A half-smile fluttered over his face. “Iero,” he said. “You hang around with the Ways, huh? I bet you think that makes you so fucking tough.” He snorted. “Prove it.”

 

Frank stepped forward. “Stop bullying first-years, asshole.”

 

“Or what?” The other boy said, teasing. Frank was already stepping forward, fury blinding him, fists swinging. It only took one punch to knock the other boy to the ground and get Frank standing above him, staring menacingly.

 

“Leave. Him. Alone,” Frank growled.

 

“Okay,” the other kid whimpered, scrambling to his feet and, with only one quick glance down the hallway at Frank, taking off.

 

“You’ve probably made an enemy of the entire Slytherin house now,” the first-year quipped, still leaning back against the wall.

 

Frank shrugged. “I’m used to it.”

 

“Thank you for sticking up for me,” he said, getting to his feet. “My name’s Tyler, uh, Tyler Joseph. I’m in Ravenclaw.”

 

“Nice to meet you,” Frank said, shaking the kid’s hand. “Frank Iero, Gryffindor.”

 

“I know who you are. Ray Toro talks about you and the others all the time.”

 

“You know Ray?” This was a shock. They weren’t even in the same house… Frank blinked, confused.

 

“Ray’s a good guy. He’s kind of like a mentor for first-years. Merlin knows I need it.”

 

“Makes sense.” Ray hadn’t really mentioned mentoring first-years, but then again he wasn’t the type to talk an awful lot about himself. Frank made a mental note to ask him more about what he did outside of the group. “So why are you a target for those fools?”

 

Tyler shrugged. “Small, weak, weird-looking. Doesn’t really have many friends. I’m the perfect target.”

 

“Well, I’m your friend now then,” Frank said, flashing the poor kid a smile. “Just start talking to me and Gee, uh, Gerard Way. People’ll think you’re Voldemort’s right hand man and leave you alone real quick.”

 

“Will do, Frank.” Tyler grinned back up at him. The kid had a surprising amount of maturity for a first-year. He let out a big breath, then said, “I’d better get to class. Bye, Frank. Thanks again.”

 

“Bye, Tyler Joseph,” Frank said, waving.

 

At dinner that night, he relayed the story to his friends, complete with his usual excessive hand movements.

 

Gerard glared at him. “Frank, you got in a fight?”

 

“It wasn’t really a fight,” Frank explained. “I just hit him once and he ran off.”

 

“Now you’ve got all of Slytherin on your bad side,” Gerard complained.

 

“I can stick up for myself.”

 

“I’m well aware,” Gerard said. “I just don’t think it’s the best idea.”

 

Mikey sighed dramatically. “You two can have your little domestic spat later. Let Ray talk.”

 

Frank turned to look at Ray who did, in fact, look like he wanted to speak quite a bit. “Well, yeah, I know Tyler Joseph. I wasn’t aware he was getting bullied though. He’s a good kid – a bit quiet, says weird shit sometimes, draws on himself a lot, but seems like a good kid. Shame he’s being bullied. Good on you for sticking up for him, Frank.”

 

Frank shot a “told-you-so” look at Gerard, who was staring intently down at his food. “I feel like I should be sticking up for people, I suppose. Like it’s my duty or something. My destiny.”

 

“Just do it carefully,” Mikey warned him.

 

“There are better ways,” Gerard threw in, still not looking happy. “Non-violent protests against the machine.”

 

“My brother’s a hippie,” Mikey mumbled to himself.

 

“I’m just saying,” Gerard said. “You don’t have to fight with fists to defend people.”

 

“If you say so,” Frank said. “Call me up once you think of a better way, Gee.”

 

“I know you’ve got good intentions,” Gerard said. “I’m not faulting you for it. I just think there might be a better way.”

 

“I’m down for a non-violent fight,” Brendon threw in, finally joining in the conversation and detaching himself from his private conversation with Ryan Ross.

 

“I’ll join, too,” Ryan Ross said.

 

Gerard’s lips quirked up. “I’m still thinking, no worries. But I’ll let you all know when I figure it out.”

 

Frank felt his annoyance at Gerard subside a little. He understood, in a way. The two of them both wanted to change the world, to help people – they were just going about it different ways. And Gerard, ever the pacifist, didn’t quite get his method of accomplishing things. It made sense.

 

“I’m looking forward to it,” Frank said sincerely. Gerard beamed.

 

.

 

The year continued to fly by. Frank had a sinking feeling that the Slytherins (besides Gerard and Brendon, of course) were plotting something against him, but nothing ever materialized, so after a while he forgot about it all together. When he asked Gerard about it, Gerard simply said, “Most Slytherins have better things to do than harass some little second-year punk,” and that reassured him even further.

 

Exam season rolled around. Frank tried his best to force himself to study, but it usually ended up with him being distracted by something, like how _perfectly_ this scrap of parchment could be folded into a paper plane. Funnily enough, though, he’d found out that he wasn’t the only one who was easily distracted.

 

Gerard was using his quill to draw beautifully inked characters across the page. The characters, most of which looked a lot like the Muggle superheroes both of them loved so much, were drawn as though they were in a comic book, walls separating them into separate panels. And then Frank realized that Gerard was basically creating a comic book.

 

“You write comics?” he asked, shocked. He’d known that Gerard drew, of course, and he’d known that Gerard drew things that looked like comics, but he hadn’t known that Gerard wrote actual _comics_.

 

“Yeah,” Gerard confessed, red rising in his cheeks. He scratched his head. “Don’t tell anyone, though. I think, uh, Mikey kind of knows, but they’re not that good yet, so I didn’t want anyone else to know.”

 

“You kept it from me,” Frank said. “You hardly ever keep things from me, Gee.” His dreams, his obsession with coffee, his thoughts about every class and every student – between this and the sexuality thing, it felt like Gerard told Frank everything except the important things.

 

“I’m sorry, Frankie,” Gerard said, hanging his head. “I just… I was scared.”

 

“I’ll forgive you if you let me see,” Frank said. Gerard pushed the comic book over to him, and Frank began sifting through it, his eyes scanning over the beautiful drawings. The main character seemed to bear a striking resemblance to someone, though…

 

Frank lifted up his head to meet Gerard’s eyes. “Is that me?”

 

“It’s based on you, yes,” Gerard said sheepishly.

 

“Wait…” Frank said, furrowing his brow. “Were you making this for me?”

 

“Well, um, yes. I was planning on finishing it over the summer and giving it to you for your birthday next year. These are only sketches; it’s not even close to the final product, but…”

 

“Shit.” Frank bit his lip. “I’m sorry, Gee. I had no idea. And I yelled at you about it… God, I’m an awful person.”

 

“No, Frankie, don’t talk like that. You couldn’t have known.”

 

“It looks amazing so far, really. I can’t wait to see the final product.”

 

“You’ll get to see it soon.” Gerard grinned and dipped his quill back into his ink.

 

.

 

During the summer, Frank ended up convincing his mother to let him stay another week at the Ways’. It was almost like a second home, Frank mused as he walked through the doors with his trunk at his feet for the third time.

 

“Frank!” Mikey greeted him, then bellowed down the stairs, “GEE! Frank’s here!”

 

Frank heard frantic footsteps running towards the stairs and he laughed, yelling towards the stairs, “Be careful, Gee. I’m not going anywhere.”

 

“I know,” said a panting Gerard, emerging from the stairs. “But I wanted to be here to greet you; I just lost track of time… Hi, Frankie.”

 

Frank laughed, pulling the Way brothers in for a hug. It was soothing, being so close to them, breathing in Gerard’s heady scent. He let go and looked at both of them. “Good to be back… even if it’s only for a bit of time.” He wrinkled his nose.

 

“Let’s go watch a movie,” Mikey suggested, though it didn’t sound like a suggestion. “I made popcorn already… over the fire, since for some godforsaken reason we’re ‘prohibited from using magic outside of schools’.”

 

“Or you could just use a microwave,” Frank informed him.

 

“Microwave,” Mikey said. “Is that some Muggle contraption?”

 

“It heats up food without using, uh, magic,” Frank explained.

 

“I’ll put it on our to-buy list,” Gerard quipped.

 

The three boys clambered down to the basement after Frank offered a quick greeting to Mrs. Way, who seemed to have busied herself with paperwork. The boys’ “Muggle contraptions” were kept down there.

 

This time Gerard asserted himself and sat in between Frank and Mikey. Mikey put his head on Gerard’s shoulder, and Gerard stroked Mikey’s hair for a few minutes before turning the other way and intertwining his fingers with Frank’s. Frank wasn’t really surprised; it wasn’t the first time they had held hands, and it probably wouldn’t be the last. Besides, the Way brothers seemed to be very touchy people.

 

Which is why he found it a little weird when Mrs. Way called them up to dinner and Mikey, turning his attention from the movie at last, looked at Gerard and Frank’s intertwined hands and shot Frank a knowing smile.

 

Mikey was just an arse, Frank told himself.

 

.

 

Most of their week was spent like the last, watching movies, playing video games, and just being in each other’s presence. It was much more touchy feely than the last, though. Gerard was more notably touchy-feely, but even Mikey would put his head in Frank’s lap on occasion or grab his arm to show him something. Frank wondered if something had changed, but felt it too strange to ask.

 

At night, Gerard would sneak into his room and they’d have little private talks, mostly about trivial things such as the movies they watched and people they knew, but sometimes about deeper things as well, such as what happened after death. Which was why, on the last night of his visit, when his door creaked open, Frank called out, “Gee?” into the darkness.

 

“No,” came the response from a voice that was very decidedly not Gerard’s. “Wait, does Gee sneak into your room at night? _Ew_.”

 

“Shut up, Mikey,” Frank said, grateful for the darkness so that Mikey couldn’t see his cheeks turning red. “What are you doing here?”

 

“You’re not glad to see me?” Mikey asked.

 

“Of course I am, but, uh, it’s a little weird.”

 

“I know.” Mikey sighed. “It’s just I have an, uh, problem, and I don’t really know who else to talk to.”

 

“A problem?”

 

It was silent for a few moments, a painful kind of silence, and then Mikey said, “I think I might be gay.”

 

“Of course you are,” Frank said. “Practically our entire friend group is gay at this point. Wouldn’t surprise me.”

 

Mikey was quiet again, and Frank was scared for a moment, thinking he might have offended him by having the worst possible reaction. But then Mikey snorted. “Shut up, Frank.”

 

“I’m just saying. Wait, are you telling me this because you want to have a gay romance with me? Because sorry, Mikey Way, but I don’t really think I’m up for that…”

 

“No!” Mikey sputtered. “No, Frank, bloody hell, shut the hell up. I don’t want to have a gay romance with _you_ , all right?”

 

“Not with me,” Frank mused. “Not with me, but with… Pete?”

 

Mikey’s silence was very telling. Frank was a little surprised, but only a little. Pete and Mikey had always been like little puppies with each other, overly affectionate and _God,_ the gazes he would catch Pete throwing Mikey’s way sometimes could melt even the Dementors. “He likes you too, you know?” he told Mikey.

 

“You don’t know that,” Mikey said. “Just don’t tell anyone, okay? I’m just… scared.”

 

“You should tell Gee,” Frank said immediately. He knew Gerard didn’t know because Gerard wasn’t especially good at keeping things a secret and probably would’ve let something slip at some point around Frank. “He’s your brother, Mikey, and he’s fucking gay, for fuck’s sake. He can provide much better support than I can.”

 

“I _will_ ,” Mikey protested. “I uh, I just… I’m scared that since he, like, just came out to us a few weeks ago, I’m scared that he’ll think I’m copying him or something.”

 

“I don’t think you can copy a sexuality.”

 

“I know that, but…” Mikey trailed off. “When I was little I wanted to be just like Gerard. He was my amazing older brother, you know, and he was confident in who he was, and funny, and everyone liked him. I would do little things to, you know, copy him. And I suppose I never fully grew out of it. I don't want him to think it’s like that. I want to give it time, make sure it’s for real.”

 

“This is a big thing, Mikey,” Frank said. “And Gerard, he’ll understand that sexuality, especially a non-mainstream sexuality, isn’t something you can copy.”

 

“Okay, Frank,” Mikey said, but he didn’t sound fully convinced. Frank decided to leave it.

 

“I can’t believe I’m literally the only person in our friend group that’s not gay,” Frank groaned.

 

“Number one, I’m like ninety percent sure that Ray’s straight. Number two, I’m like ninety-nine percent sure that you’re _not_.”

 

“What?” Frank asked, scandalized.

 

“Frank, you’re practically having a love affair with my brother,” Mikey said, adding a gagging sound for dramatic effect.

 

“I’m not,” Frank told him stubbornly. “Gerard’s just my best friend.”

 

“If you say so.”

 

“Go to bed, Mikey Way,” Frank said, shoving him off the bed, and trying not to think about if what he said had some merit.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys for commenting and leaving kudos! Please keep doing so, it'll give me the motivation to edit the three remaining chapters and post them in the next few days.
> 
> Please let me know, again, if anything I've written is glaringly American since I'm not too updated on British slang! I hope you enjoyed this chapter and continue to enjoy the story.


	3. Year Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Major TW for suicide.
> 
> Frank and Gerard finally have an advocacy idea - but can it work for everyone? Meanwhile, all their friends seem to be pairing off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has a major TW for suicide, just to let you all know.

Mikey raised his eyebrows at Frank the next day when Frank and Gerard hugged for just a _second_ too long as Frank was leaving (he wasn’t going to see Gerard for a while, it was normal, Frank thought). In response, Frank flipped him off and mouthed “tell him” behind Gerard’s back. Mikey pretended not to see that, of course. Typical.

 

The rest of the summer was full of monotony, but at this point, Frank was used to it. He threw himself into his guitar playing, and one night Frank’s mom even let him go to a local punk band’s show. She came with him, of course, but he tried to forget she was there, so it was a pretty fun time.

 

When it was finally time to go back to school, though, and he met with Mikey and Gerard at the station, he was met with an unexpected sight. He blinked twice, trying to clear his vision just in case the sight in front of him was a hallucination.

 

It wasn’t.

 

“Gee, bloody hell, your hair!” he exclaimed.

 

Gerard combed a hand through his hair, his _fire-engine red_ hair, and blushed. “Do you like it?”

 

Frank was caught off guard by the question. Did he like it? Yes, he supposed he did. It suited Gerard, brought out the brightness of his eyes, and looked much less greasy than it had in its natural state. Frank grinned. “It’s brilliant. How in the world did you convince your mum?”

 

“She said she supposed I was old enough to dye my own hair at this point,” Gerard said. “I’ll be sixteen this year, after all.”

 

“Grandpa,” Frank teased. He hadn’t really thought about it, but Gerard was getting older – a legitimate teenager now, not a baby teenager like Frank. He frowned. He didn’t like the idea of Gerard getting older without him.

 

Gerard just laughed and looped his arms around Frank. He was quite a bit taller than Frank, so Frank’s face was crammed into Gerard’s chest. When he pulled away, he saw Mikey smirking at him, his face still in that “I told you so” expression that Frank hated so much.

 

When he hugged Mikey, he whispered “Shut up or I’m telling Pete” in his ear and hoped that would shut him up for a bit.

 

The three of them boarded the train, and in little to no time were joined by the rest of their motley crew – Brendon, Ryan, Pete, and Ray. Brendon crowed, “Welcome back, my beautiful gay friends!” and laughed as everyone rolled their eyes. Frank wondered if Brendon knew about Mikey, if he had some secret ‘gaydar’ he was hiding from everyone else. Probably not.

 

Brendon detailed his summer adventures, complete with his trip to France with his ‘best pal’, Ryan, who was heavily blushing for some odd reason. Then Ray jumped in to talk about the stuff he’d learned over the summer and the fact that he’d gone to Muggle _museums_ , which made Pete cough _Ravenclaw_ into his sleeve. Ray just grinned good-naturedly.

 

“Well, I didn’t do shit this summer,” Frank said. “I went to one gig and stayed with the Ways for like, a week, but beyond that – absolutely nothing. I’ve never looked forward to school starting back before. I feel like such a nerd.”

 

“I look forward to school starting back every year,” Gerard said, blinking innocently.

 

“You’re a nerd,” Frank said. Gerard laughed. Mikey gagged again, and Frank shot him a warning glare.

 

Although they were in the same train carriage and the same carriage to Hogwarts, Frank didn’t really get a chance to talk to Gerard until after the Sorting ceremony. He grabbed Gerard’s sleeve and dragged him into a corridor, which probably didn’t help the rumours he was sure Mikey was spreading via Pete, who was literally incapable of keeping anything to himself.

 

Gerard quirked an eyebrow at him.

 

“Did Mikey…” Frank trailed off, unsure how to phrase the question in a way that didn’t reveal anything.

 

“Tell me about his gayness and his crush on Pete? Yeah.” Gerard smiled. “I think it’s cute.”

 

“Oh, thank God,” Frank said, leaning against the wall. “We should help him out. Be his wingmen.”

 

Gerard furrowed his brow. “I’m not sure he’d appreciate that.”

 

“He would after the fact,” Frank pointed out.

 

“I say we just talk to him. Talk him through confessing to Pete, give him confidence, you know? I’m sure if I was in that situation I’d be terrified.”

 

“Sure, but Pete is very very gay and has a very very obvious crush on Mikey.”

 

“Mikey, for some reason, doesn’t seem to be aware of that.”

 

Frank gave a long-suffering sigh. “Fine. We’ll talk to Mikey.”

 

.

 

Mikey did not appreciate Gerard’s plan, either.

 

“I don’t need your help,” he told them.

 

Frank was not willing to accept that as an answer. “So what’s your plan, then?” he asked.

 

Mikey hesitated. “Um,” he said. “Wait until Pete asks me out?”

 

“And if that never happens…?” Frank said.

 

“Die,” Mikey mumbled.

 

“See, you do need our help,” Gerard said with a satisfied smile. “Okay, well, first of all, Mikes, Pete is very clearly into you. I know that, Frank knows that, the whole world knows that. We can tell by the way he looks at you and talks about you, so there’s that. So, uh, this shouldn’t be too hard.”

 

“Just look into his eyes and tell him you want to fuck him,” Frank said with a blank expression.

 

Mikey cracked up. Gerard looked scandalized. “ _Frank_! I never want that image in my head again, okay – no, don’t tell him that. What you need to do, Mikey, is get him alone, maybe when you’re coming back from class or something. You don’t want other people around. That’ll make both of you feel uncomfortable. And then you just sit him down and you tell him. You tell him you don’t want to ruin your friendship or anything but this is how you’re feeling. And of course he won’t reject you…”

 

Gerard kept going, but Frank was starting to get lost in thought. It was pretty good advice, and Frank wondered how Gerard thought of it and why. In the two years he’d known Gerard, Gerard hadn’t shown interest in anyone. Absently, he wondered if Gerard had done research into the topic for someone – but of course not, Gerard would have told him. Wouldn’t he?

 

The subject stayed on his mind for the rest of the night, despite his best efforts to push it away. And it didn’t clear the next day when Mikey, who had clearly taken Gerard’s advice and _not_ Frank’s, came strolling up to their table hand-in-hand with Pete Wentz.

 

Gerard blinked. “My baby brother’s got a boyfriend.”

 

“Nice to meet you, everyone, I’m Pete Wentz and I’ve got the most attractive man in the world as my boyfriend,” Pete boasted, kissing Mikey’s cheek as they sat down together.

 

“Man,” Frank said, laughing.

 

Gerard blinked again. “Ew.”

 

“Congratulations, Pete and Mikey,” Ray said. Ray was really too nice.

 

And then Brendon chimed in with, “I _knew_ Mikey Way was gay!”

 

People were starting to stare, Frank knew that. They were calculating in their heads, realizing that Brendon and Ryan were very obviously gay, there were rumours being spread about Gerard being gay, and now Pete and Mikey were gay too. Of course Ray was there and people knew he was straight, but that wouldn’t stop the rumours that would soon be circulating about Frank within minutes. Frank didn’t really care all that much what they thought about him, but the issue _was_ that he didn’t know if they were right or wrong.

 

And that was what started his sexuality crisis.

 

For a couple of days, he avoided social contact. He hid out in the dorms during meals, avoided eye contact in the halls, and practically sprinted away from the Way brothers and the rest of their friends. During all of his free time, he agonized over his sexuality. Could he be gay? Had he been attracted to men in the past? He couldn’t think of any, but it was possible that he wasn’t fully aware of his attractions. Right? Or was he just too young to be attracted? Maybe it had been subconscious?

 

Then he started doing a comparison game. He would choose one woman and one man and he would decide which was more attractive. It started out with celebrities – Emma Watson versus Daniel Radcliffe, for example, in which Daniel Radcliffe was clearly superior. Then it escalated to real people. He would sit in the back of Potions and do comparisons amongst his classmates. Louis Simmons was clearly better than Rosie Bevans, and Luke Rhodes than Kiera Ford. _Two points for the gay team._

Yes, it was becoming exceedingly clear what his sexuality was, and that wasn’t even the worst part. The worst part was that one person kept standing out in his mind as being the most attractive of them all.

 

It was the third day of his isolation, and Frank was holed up in his room during breakfast when the door creaked open. The source of all his woes was on the other side, glaring at him. “Frank Iero, you motherfucker.”

 

Frank buried his face in his pillow. “Hi, Gee.”

 

“Don’t you ‘hi, Gee’ me,” Gerard growled, walking over to him. “Where the fuck have you been? I haven’t seen you in three fucking days.” Gerard was trying to be scary, Frank knew, but even now Frank wasn’t really scared of him. Gerard was too big a softie. Frank knew just how to get him.  


“I’m sorry, Gee,” Frank said, fixing him with wide puppy-dog eyes. “It’s just… after Mikey came out, I started freaking out because I didn’t _know_ , and I’m like the only one in the friend group to not know, so I just wanted to be alone and figure it out. And now I think I'm gay. I honestly don’t care what anyone says, but it’s just… surprising.” Frank buried his head in his hands.

 

Much to his relief, he was right about Gerard being susceptible to his manipulations. Briefly, he wondered if he should’ve been a Slytherin. He didn’t have too much time to consider that, though, because Gerard was beside him on his bed all of a sudden, wrapping Frank in his arms.

 

“It’s okay, Frank,” Gerard said, running his hand through Frank’s hair in a soothing manner. “It’s really scary at first, I know. But, you know, you could’ve come to me. I understand.” He sounded a little betrayed, Frank thought, which was no good at all.

 

“I’m sorry, Gee,” he said again, hanging his head. “I know I should’ve. But I wanted to figure it out by myself first, I suppose.” _And there’s the fact that I think I might have a crush on you_ , he added mentally, _so you’d be no help at all with that._

“It’s fine, Frankie,” he said, pulling Frank a little closer so that Frank’s head was practically resting on his chest. Frank hoped that Gerard didn’t notice Frank’s heart beating just a little bit faster. “But you must be starving. Let’s go to breakfast and let everyone know you’re all right, okay?”

 

“Okay,” Frank said reluctantly, not wanting to face the inquisition that was sure to come from his upset classmates, but knowing it was inevitable.

 

As the two of them walked to the Great Hall, Gerard turned to grin at him. “So this makes Ray the last straight guy in our friend group then?”

 

“Shut up,” Frank said, blushing, and groaning when Gerard reached over to ruffle his hair.

 

.

 

Having a crush on Gerard Way was perhaps the most insufferable experience of Frank’s life.

 

Ever since he’d figured it out a few weeks ago, every second that he was with Gerard (which, aside from classes and sleeping, was a good amount of the time) was spent overanalyzing everything that happened. Was that squeeze of his hand for comfort or because Gerard wanted to hold his hand? Did he smile at Frank like that because he was into him or because Frank was just a very good friend? He felt like a twelve-year-old girl instead of the nearly fourteen-year-old boy that he was.

 

He wished he could talk to Mikey about the whole thing, since he’d had to listen to Mikey about Pete even after the two started dating, but he knew Mikey would bail the second that his brother and romance were brought up in a sentence together.

 

Mikey had figured out that he was distracted, though. Frank could tell. Sometimes they’d be in a conversation and Frank would start thinking about Gerard, when he’d see Gerard next, when he would talk to Gerard next, whether Gerard thought of him like that at all – or was he too young? He looked younger than he was – and Mikey would just raise his eyebrows and say something like, “Get your head back in the world, Iero,” or “You’re not on a broomstick right now”.

 

During his Quidditch games he’d always seek out Gerard in the crowd first, and when his eyes fell upon Gerard’s head of bright red hair he would beam and suddenly be revitalized with strength to slam the Bludger away.

 

They’d lost the House Cup last year, much to Hurley’s dismay, to Slytherin of all houses. So Gerard’s presence in the Gryffindor stands wasn't always welcomed. But Gerard didn’t care much and neither did Frank, and Mikey and Pete were always glad to have him around (well, except for their ‘private time’ or whatever), so Gerard stayed.

 

All in all, the whole Gerard thing was messing with his head quite a bit. Frank tried to throw himself into Quidditch and school, but he wasn’t great at school and Quidditch was no replacement for Gerard.

 

It was torturous.

 

And then Gerard pulled him aside in the hall one day and said, “You haven’t come out.”

 

Ah fuck, Frank thought. He’d forgotten about that part.

 

“You don’t have to or anything,” Gerard said quickly. “I mean, some people stay in the closet forever. But you didn’t seem like the type to stay closeted, I dunno, so I was wondering if you wanted support or anything, if that’s why you hadn’t come out yet.”

 

 _Support._ Frank almost snorted. _We could snog a bit, I could definitely go for that kind of support,_ he thought wryly, and then mentally berated himself for it. “Um, no, that’s not why. I honestly hadn’t even been thinking about it. But I could like, come out on my birthday. That’d be nice…”

 

“Yeah, your birthday is next week,” Gerard said with a smile. “You don’t have to do anything big. The boys won’t judge you.”

 

“Yeah, cause they’re all gay too,” Frank snorted. Gerard gave a little laugh. Frank’s heart melted.

 

How in the bloody world Frank had developed a weakness for this red-haired fifth-year Slytherin outcast, Frank didn’t know.

 

.

 

On Frank’s fourteenth birthday, Gerard surprised Frank with a new broom. (His first one had been bought with his Muggle mother, so of course she was oblivious to the intricacies that made up each broom and bought him the cheapest one out there.) Frank grinned, admiring how lightweight and beautiful it was, and then threw his arms around Gerard. “’M gonna go fly it later. You should come watch,” he mumbled into Gerard’s neck.

 

“Of course, Frankie,” Gerard said. “But first, you’re going to go talk to them, right?”

 

“Of course, _Mum_ ,” Frank said sarcastically.

 

The two walked into the Great Hall, plopping down at the table where their friends were already waiting. Brendon immediately started into a rendition of “Happy Birthday”, which was made slightly less painful by the fact that his voice was surprisingly pleasant to listen to. Ryan, Pete, and Mikey joined in. Ray just grinned, mouthing a “Happy birthday, sorry for them”.

 

“So,” Gerard said once Brendon was finally done. “Frank here has an announcement.”

 

“Oh my god, are you guys finally dating?” Brendon asked.

 

Frank rolled his eyes, willing himself with everything in him not to blush, and said, “Fuck off, Brendon.” He didn’t want to see Gerard’s face; he had a feeling he wouldn’t like what he saw. “What about you and Ryan?”

 

Brendon grinned his evil-Brendon grin. It was _very_ obvious why he was in Slytherin. “Touché, Iero.”

 

“Anyways,” Frank said. “I’m gay.”

 

“Congrats on coming out, Frank,” Ray said sincerely.

 

“Wait, am I supposed to act surprised?” Brendon said. “I figured that out ages ago. You’re the second gayest person I know.”

 

“Second?” Gerard asked.

 

Brendon shrugged. “Ryan’s first.” Ryan looked as if he craved death.

 

“I would beg to differ,” Mikey cut in, and then Mikey turned to Frank. “I had a feeling,” he said. “But you know we love you no matter what. And hey, now we’ve practically got a little club.” Pete nodded in agreement.

 

“Well,” Gerard said. “I was kind of thinking about it, and we’ve got quite a few gay guys here – minus Ray, sorry Ray – but, well, as you guys know, we face a good bit of discrimination and harassment here at Hogwarts, and I’m sure other people with same gender attraction and gender identity issues face the same things. And for some godforsaken reason, Hogwarts doesn’t have any kind of LGBT club. So… we could start one?”

 

The boys all exchanged glances. “Do you think we’re qualified to do that?” Pete asked.

 

“Why not?” Gerard said with a shrug. “Of course, we’d have to get a professor or some sort of staff member involved, but we’re pretty experienced. And I just feel like everyone should have the same sort of support system we do.”

 

“I think it’s an amazing idea,” Frank said, surprising even himself.

 

“I know you guys will do a terrific job,” Ray said. “And I’m always willing to help out for support and stuff.”

 

Pete raised an eyebrow at him. “Toro, I’m not convinced you’re 100% straight.”

 

Ray rolled his eyes at Pete. “Thankfully, it’s not you I have to convince.”

 

“Who do you think we should ask to be our faculty advisor?” Frank asked, and that sent them into a long conversation debating the merits and drawbacks of potential advisors. They eventually settled on their Defence Against the Dark Arts professor, Professor Armstrong, since he seemed as though he was a relaxed man who would understand their mission.

 

The more they discussed, the more that it seemed that this club was going to become a reality, which to Frank was unbelievable – after three years of seeing his friends go through such intense bullying, the fact that there could be a safe haven for people like them was almost too much to fathom. Mikey, who was one of the better third-year DADA students, volunteered to go talk to Professor Armstrong after class. Frank hoped for the best.

 

.

 

Later that day, Mikey came up behind Frank and Gerard, nearly scaring Frank to death, and said, “Armstrong said yes.”

 

Gerard’s face lit up, and Frank thought it was probably one of the most beautiful things he had ever seen. “So we’re in?”

 

“He said that as long as we can figure out a place to meet and shit, we should be fine,” Mikey told them. “And that of course he’d be our sponsor. Oh, and we need to make a list that has at least ten members so we can, uh, verify interest.”

 

“Ten,” Gerard murmured, his forehead scrunching together. “So there’s me, you, Frankie, Pete, Ray, Brendon, and Ryan… that’s only seven.”

 

“Shit,” Mikey said. “This is one of those times when only associating with each other really hurts us.”

 

“Frank?” Gerard looked helplessly at Frank.

 

Gerard’s face looked a little too distraught for Frank’s liking. Frank had to rectify that somehow. His preferred method ended up being telling Gerard, “I’ll find three people, okay? People on my Quidditch team, people I barely even know… we’ll make it to ten, no worries.”

 

And so when Frank ran across Tyler Joseph in the hall later that day, he was on a mission.

 

“Hi, Tyler,” he greeted the younger boy warmly. Tyler regarded him with caution. Since their first meeting a while ago, the two hadn’t talked much besides small conversations, so it made sense that Tyler wasn’t the friendliest around him.

 

“Hi, Frank,” Tyler said. “I heard it was your birthday. Happy birthday.”

 

“Thanks, Tyler,” Frank said, grinning. “Hey, listen.” He trailed off, trying to think of the most tactful way to put his rather surprising question. “Um, well, I know last time we talked you said you didn’t exactly fit in or something and well, my friends and I are trying to start this club for people who don't fit in, but we need more people. It’s for a specific group of people who don’t fit in, though, you know, people who like people who aren’t… really accepted…”

 

Tyler tilted his head at Frank. “Are you asking if I’m gay?”

 

Frank couldn’t read the expression on Tyler’s face, which scared him, so he quickly responded with, “Well, yeah. It’s fine if you are and it’s fine if you’re not. I mean, I’m gay, so I just thought I’d ask.”

 

Tyler bit his lip, looked at the ground, and then met Frank’s gaze hesitantly. “Yes,” he said quietly. “I’m gay too.”

 

“Oh! Well, thanks for telling me,” Frank said brightly, trying not to scare Tyler off. “We’re just, we were going to start up a Sexual and Gender Minorities club here at Hogwarts, but we need at least ten people to join, and I only know seven at the moment, including myself. Would you be interested?”

 

“I’m not out of the closet yet,” Tyler said. “I think it’d just make all the teasing worse.”

 

“No one has to know about it,” Frank told him. “I promise no one in the club will out you, okay? It’s just for support – they’re mostly all gay too. I think you’d fit in perfectly.”

 

He was maybe laying it on a bit thick, but Tyler didn’t seem to have noticed. Tyler just nodded, a fraction of a smile on his face, and said, “Okay, I suppose I can join then. Um, but I have a friend that might be interested in this club too. I’ll talk to him and let you know.”

 

“That would be fantastic,” Frank said, offering Tyler a genuine smile.

 

.

 

With the addition of Tyler and his friend, Josh, along with Andy Hurley from the Quidditch team (“I might be a little bi,” Andy acknowledged when Frank asked him) and Andy’s friend Patrick from Hufflepuff, they had eleven people’s names on the list that they presented to Professor Armstrong at the end of the week. Gerard nearly yelped in joy when Armstrong approved their list and their plan to meet in the Room of Requirement (Frank had no clue what it was, but Gerard and Mikey assured him it would meet their needs). Their first meeting was approved for the next Friday.

 

Andy walked him to the meeting room after Quidditch practice, their conversation drifting between Quidditch and music. Frank found out that Andy played the drums, which is something he wondered why he hadn’t known before. The two of them walked up to a blank wall, and Frank said, “What the fuck?”

 

Andy smirked over at him. “I’m guessing you haven’t used the Room of Requirement before.”

 

“No, I haven’t even heard of it,” Frank said.

 

“Just envision what you really need right now – the meeting room, okay?” Andy said.

 

Frank closed his eyes and pictured the meeting room, with all of the people who were in the club and Gerard – _oh,_ Gerard – he yelled at himself not to get distracted. Thankfully, he didn’t fail too miserably, because the door to the room materialized in front of them.

 

“After you,” Andy said.

 

He walked into the room, and his eyes immediately fell on to Pete and Mikey, who were holding hands and gazing at each other lovingly in a way that made Frank want to throw up. Across from them sat Tyler Joseph, who was staring at Pete and Mikey with wide eyes, probably because of how open they were being about their relationship. Next to Tyler was a boy with dyed blue hair, tugging on his Hufflepuff tie in a nervous fashion. His hair looked a bit out of place on him – he was obviously quite young, around Tyler’s age. He had to be Josh, Frank figured. He shifted his gaze to the left. There was a guy about his size wearing a fedora and glasses along with his Hufflepuff uniform. He had to be Andy’s friend, Patrick. Brendon and Ryan were to his right, talking animatedly about something that was probably not worth exploring. Lastly, on the other side of Ryan sat Ray, and beside Ray was Gerard. Frank didn’t even think twice before walking over to Gerard’s other side and taking a seat.

 

“Frankie, you were almost late,” Gerard said in way of greeting.

 

“It’s not my fault,” Frank protested. “Andy went over a little bit. Says we _need_ to beat your damn house this year or we’re useless as a team.”

 

“He’s determined,” Gerard whispered. “I wouldn’t have thought he was gay, though.”

 

“Bi, you arse,” Frank corrected him. “And, well, you never know.”

 

“We need to get more girls,” Gerard said mournfully, looking around at their testosterone-fueled population. “Too bad I’m shit at talking to them.”

 

“I’ll find some girls, don’t worry,” Frank assured him. “I’m sure we’ll keep getting bigger every week.”

 

“Ahem,” Professor Armstrong, who Frank hadn’t noticed, said from across the room. “I think it’s about time for us to get started. I’m certain you all know me, because I know all of you, and I’m sure you also know that this is the first meeting of the SAGD, Sexual And Gender Diversity, club at Hogwarts. I’d like to be the first to welcome you all, though this really isn’t _my_ club, to be clear. I’m just here to supervise and make sure everything goes smoothly. I’d also like to reassure you that everything said here is completely confidential and I surely will not be repeating or using anything you say outside of this room in any way, shape, or form. Now, to pass it over to our fearless leader, Gerard Way.”

 

Gerard beamed. “Thank you all loads for coming. I know it’s not ideal, being out of the ordinary here, but hopefully having all these people who understand to just support each other will be helpful. Now, I think we should start off with introductions…”

 

Introductions weren’t all that important for Frank, seeing as he already knew who everyone was, but he found out that Patrick was a fifth-year like Gerard and Ray, meaning that he and Ray were actually good friends as well, and that Josh was in fact a second-year. After introductions, they started in on the day’s topic of coming out. Tyler asked for advice on how and when without getting beat up. Andy volunteered himself and Frank to personally beat up anyone harassing Tyler, which made Frank groan and bury his head in his lap. Patrick talked about his coming out experience and expressed how grateful he was to have friends to support him. He beamed at Ray and Andy, who both grinned back at him.

 

Overall, it was a successful meeting, and Frank left with hope that it would continue to grow in the future. Gerard was discussing possible advocacy events with Ray as Frank caught up to the two of them.

 

“Frankie,” Gerard said with a grin. “That was a great first meeting, don’t you think?”

 

“It was,” Frank agreed. “I can’t believe this is actually going to work. Gee, you’re a genius.”

 

“You flatter me,” Gerard retorted.

 

“Shit, I forgot, I’m meant to meet with the Potions professor about some extra credit,” Ray said. “I’ll see you lot later. Good meeting.” He gave them a wave and then practically jogged off in the other direction. Frank and Gerard exchanged a confused look.

 

“Potions?” Frank asked.

 

“Last time Ray tried making a potion by himself it blew up all over me and made my hair greasy for _literally_ weeks,” Gerard said. “No way Ray’s going to do any kind of potions by himself.”

 

“Then what? Is he avoiding me?” Frank turned to Gerard with wide eyes.

 

“I doubt it,” Gerard said. “You haven’t done anything to him… I don’t know. Maybe it was something I said.”

 

.

 

Just as they had predicted, the club kept growing. Some girls, such as Hayley from his Quidditch team and Ashley from Ravenclaw, even joined in, giving them a feeling of relief that they weren’t doing something to drive them away. Although they wanted to keep the club a secret for their closeted members, it soon became obvious that this wasn’t an entirely feasible goal when people were pouring into the Room of Requirement in droves.

 

At their fifth meeting, Gerard and Frank were confronted outside of the Room of Requirement by a burly looking Slytherin boy. He gave them a suggestive grin. “Is this where your little faggot club meets?”

 

“Fuck off,” Frank said, because of course the guy wasn’t entirely wrong, but Frank couldn’t tell him that.

 

“I’m sure people will be very interested to hear about this,” he said, curling his lip. Frank wanted to punch him in the face, but he was sure it wasn’t the most prudent course of action.

 

As the guy walked off, Gerard whispered, “Fucking Gregory” under his breath. Frank turned to him, eyes wide with surprise. “You know that guy?”

 

“Unfortunately,” Gerard muttered. “I’m not isolated from my entire house, you know? Anyway, he’s a complete arse, and I’m afraid that he might bring people by… you know. We could change the time and date for next week, but since there are quite a few people now…” Gerard trailed off, looking uncomfortable.

 

“I get it,” Frank said. He didn’t want to tell people, though, especially not Tyler, Tyler who had finally started to become comfortable around the club members, Tyler who seemed as though he had more than just Josh and Frank as his friends now.

 

“We’ll talk about it,” Gerard said, sensing Frank’s tension.

 

And so they did. As Frank had expected, Tyler looked completely taken aback at the idea of being outed so abruptly. Frank felt horrible about it. Others, such as Brendon, Mikey, and Pete, were of course more comfortable with being exposed and out in the open. The ones who were still willing to stay developed a plan to stick together, to defend each other, and Frank gladly volunteered his services.

 

After the meeting was over, Frank walked over to Tyler. “Hey, um, Tyler, I know this isn’t an ideal situation, but I hope you’ll stick around…”

 

“I can’t stay,” Tyler whispered. “They can’t find out.”

 

“But Tyler, you’re doing so well!” Frank protested. “You’re really connecting with people. I’m going to stay too, I can help…”

 

“Frank, no offense, but you have no idea,” Tyler said, and although his words were venomous, there was no venom in his tone. “You’ve never been afraid for your life while walking down the hall. You’ve never been thrown into the Slytherin dungeons just for the fun of it. No one’s ever shoved you into a trunk. You just don’t get it.”

 

Frank didn’t say anything. He couldn’t. Tyler was right; his Beater muscles and Beater status had afforded him enough protection to slide through his two and a half years without too much teasing or harassment. He’d never had any of those things happen to him. He felt like the world’s biggest hypocrite.

 

Tyler sighed. “I just think it’s best for me if I stay away. Thanks anyways. It was great while it lasted.”

 

He walked off, and Josh Dun came up to him, his blue fringe falling in his face. “I’ll talk to him,” Josh said, shooting Frank a sad glance. “I know it’s tough for him. But thanks for trying.”

 

Frank nodded as Josh walked off as well, feeling completely useless. Gerard came up to him, clearly sensing his mood change. “Frank…”

 

“It’s all gone to shit, Gee,” Frank mumbled, feeling miserable.

 

Gerard wrapped his arms around Frank, pulling Frank into his chest. “No, it hasn’t,” Gerard answered, his lips almost brushing the top of Frank’s head. “You saw how everyone was teaming up and protecting each other. It was beautiful. We’re creating a community of people who really care about each other, right? And don’t worry about Tyler. Josh will talk to him and we’ll find a way to get him to come back.”

 

Frank sighed into Gerard’s chest. “Tell me if anyone tries to come for you, okay? I’ll kick their ass.”

 

“I know,” Gerard said, chuckling into Frank’s head, sending reverberations down Frank’s spine. They stood like that for a minute, silent, close to each other, reveling in their shared company.

 

Then, of course, Mikey walked in. He practically choked. “Sorry, didn’t know I was interrupting.”

 

“Oh, please, Mikey, as if I haven’t walked in on worse,” Frank shot back.

 

“Wait, what?” Gerard said, letting go of Frank and immediately switching into protective big brother mode. “What do you mean, worse? Mikey Way, you better not have – I’m going to _murder_ Pete!”

 

Mikey took off, shooting an angry glare Frank’s direction, and Gerard followed him, hot on his heels, shouting something about his younger brother’s purity. Frank just laughed and tried to peel his mind away from whatever was happening between him and Gerard. No way Gerard would be into him… right?

 

.

 

Tyler didn’t come to the next meeting. Frank tried to say something to Josh after the meeting about it, to inquire if Tyler was okay, but Josh muttered something along the lines of “have to get to a meeting” and took off, leaving Frank in the dust. Frank sighed, feeling even more worried than before, and returned to chatting with Patrick about what Patrick thought of various forms of Muggle communication.

 

Before Frank had the time to go confront Tyler about missing the meetings, though, Christmas holidays were already upon them, and Frank was shuttled home, a place where he didn’t really know how to make contact with either Tyler or Josh. He spent a lot of time spamming Gerard’s phone inbox with texts like _do u think tylers ok??_ and _i could track them down maybe online_ , to which Gerard would reassure him over and over again.

 

It wasn’t really enough.

 

 _I miss you_ , Frank texted late one night. _I miss you more_ was the response he got.

 

He wished Gerard was there with him, Gerard who always knew what to say, Gerard who was his best friend, Gerard who he had a huge crush on but could never tell because he didn’t want to ruin what they had.

 

Thankfully, the Christmas holidays weren’t too painfully long, and he returned to Hogwarts with a stash full of candy and a heart ready to see his best friend. Thankfully, Gerard seemed to be feeling the same way, because he jogged over to Frank as soon as he spotted him and threw his arms around Frank, a hug that Frank gladly returned. Mikey joined them soon after and rolled his eyes.

 

“Oh, shut it,” Frank said, pulling away from Gerard to give Mikey a (much shorter and less passionate) hug. “Go find your little boyfriend.”

 

Mikey’s face fell, and Frank was sure he looked as confused as he felt. Gerard sighed. “They’re having a fight.”

 

“A fight?” Frank asked, confused.

 

“He just… I feel like he’s not as affectionate as he should be,” Mikey said with a scowl. “He’s very flamboyant, but he still doesn’t want to hold my hand in public the majority of the time? It makes me feel like maybe he’s cheating on me or something.”

 

“I doubt that,” Frank said. “He’s liked you for ages.”

 

“I know,” Mikey said glumly. “Anyways, it doesn’t look like you two are having any problems in that arena.”

 

“We’re not dating,” Frank pointed out.

 

“Sure you’re not,” Mikey said.

 

Frank stuck his tongue out at Mikey, but his cheeks were flushed red. He really hoped Gerard wouldn’t notice.

 

.

 

Mikey and Pete’s fight didn’t last long, according to Mikey, but he never really got an explanation for why Pete was so uncomfortable with PDA. Mikey just decided not to push that subject and Pete promised to be more affectionate. Frank found it a little strange, but decided that if it was what Mikey wanted, then it was fine.

 

Tyler still wasn’t coming to the GASD meetings, which were thankfully going strong. The first time he saw him after break, Frank was filled with a feeling of relief, because at least he was still alive. But when he tried to talk to him, he didn’t get much at all.

 

“Hey Tyler,” he said. “How was your break?”

 

“Fine,” Tyler said.

 

“How are you feeling?”

 

“Fine,” Tyler said.

 

“Okay,” Frank said. “We miss you at the meetings. Hopefully you can come to one soon, since everything with that idiot Slytherin guy, Gregory or whoever, has kind of died down.”

 

“Okay,” Tyler said.

 

Frank looked at Tyler mournfully. There was so much he wanted to say, and yet he didn’t really know what to say. He settled on, “You know we’re here if you want us. You don’t even have to talk. You can just come sit with us and, you know, have some support.”

 

Tyler looked down at the ground and mumbled, “Thanks, Frank.” He then turned around completely and walked off, leaving Frank in his dust.

 

Frank ran a hand through his hair, a habit he’d probably picked up from Gerard, and sighed.

 

.

 

“Josh said he’d be fine,” Gerard reassured him for the fiftieth time as he walked Frank to Quidditch practice. “And Josh knows him a hell of a lot better than we do. Stop worrying your pretty little head.”

 

Frank tried not to blush at Gerard calling him pretty and instead shrugged. “I know. You’re right. I just can’t get it out of my head for some reason.”

 

“It’s because you’re a caring person,” Gerard said, giving him a signature Gerard smile that Frank hadn’t really seen him aim at anyone else. “But sometimes you have to know when to let go of things, Frankie, and trust it’ll end up okay.”

 

“I hope,” Frank said quietly.

 

“Good luck at Quidditch practice,” Gerard told him. “I’ll wait for you after and we’ll walk to the meeting together, okay?”

 

“Of course,” Frank said. “We shouldn’t go over, but if we’re late, go on without me.”

 

“Will do,” Gerard said, and then he drew Frank into a hug as they parted. He whispered in his ear, “I’m here, Frankie, okay? It’ll be okay.”

 

“Thanks, Gee,” Frank responded.

 

Quidditch practice was as mind-numbing as usual, with Andy alternating between barking commands at the team and shooting concerned glances at Frank, who simply didn’t have the heart to perform at his usual level. After practice, Andy looked like he wanted to ask Frank what was going on, but Frank just shook his head and said, “Don’t. We’ve got to get to the meeting.”

 

The two of them walked off to the side of the field, where Gerard was meant to be meeting them. Gerard shot them his usual dazzling smile, putting his arms around Frank, but just a few seconds later Gerard’s body went completely stiff. Frank drew back, staring at Gerard in concern. “Is… is everything okay?”

 

“Frank,” Gerard said, his voice devoid of its usual warmth, instead strangely harsh and commanding. “Don’t turn around.”

 

“Gee… what’s going on?” Frank asked. Gerard just stared at something behind Frank, and Frank, not being able to resist being in the loop, turned around. Gerard’s hand found its way to his shoulder and squeezed tightly as Frank made eye contact with the most horrifying thing he’d ever seen.

 

He’d imagined his worst nightmares to be one of those awful humongous spiders people rumoured were hiding in the Forbidden Forest or being struck with one of the unforgivable curses. This struck Frank so much worse, seeing Tyler Joseph standing on top of one of the towers. He was slowly stepping off, his face blank, all emotion wiped from the boy as he walked towards his demise.

 

Frank wanted to do something, wanted to help, but for a second all he could do was stare blankly. And then there was screaming from all around him. Andy was tearing off towards the locker room, probably to get a broom. Tyler had certainly gotten his timing right if this was what he had wanted – everyone had put their brooms away. But of course there were other ways to stop him, there had to be.

 

Tyler took the last step forward and slipped off of the roof. There was screaming from the crowd and the mutters of a couple of different spells, but he was falling so fast that none of the spells managed to catch him. It was horrifying, the fact that even magic wasn't helping him, but someone had to be able to, someone could get him. Frank, finally breaking free of his own mental spell, dashed forward, hoping that he would be able to catch Tyler or at least break his fall, and he heard the footsteps of other people running forwards too, and someone was screaming, and they were still casting spells, and –

 

_Thud._

Frank kept running, running, running, and suddenly he was standing in front of a scared-looking Tyler Joseph, his body twisted at impossible angles. Tyler looked up at Frank and at all the other people, and then he breathed.

 

And then he didn’t breathe again.

 

.

 

“It all happened so fast,” Gerard said, his voice cracking. “One second we saw him up there, and the next he was on the ground, basically. I – we – it was hard, of course people tried, they ran for him, they cast all the spells they knew – we tried, but I don’t know, we couldn’t stop him.”

 

Headmaster McGonagall nodded, scribbling something down on the parchment with her quill. “I don’t blame you at all, Mr. Way, you must know that. I know it was a horrifying experience, and I’m so sorry you and Mr. Iero here had to experience it. I just have to get all the details. Now, did you notice Mr. Joseph acting at all funny beforehand?”

 

“He’d been acting funny for a while, avoiding us, not coming to the meetings,” Gerard said, running a hand through his hair. “We knew something was wrong, but we had no idea it was this bad. Frank tried to talk to him a couple of times, but he was just unresponsive…”

 

Gerard looked like he was going to cry. Frank longed to reach out and hug him, offer some form of comfort, something, anything, but he couldn’t make his body move correctly.

 

“Please don’t beat yourself up over this,” Headmaster McGonagall said softly. “I don’t know how much you could’ve done to prevent this from happening, especially if he wasn’t responsive. That’s all I needed for now. Take care of yourself, boys.”

 

Frank felt his whole body turn to lead. Gerard seemed to understand that, because he grabbed Frank’s hand and pulled him with him as he turned to leave the room. Once they were in the hallway, Gerard looked at him, his brilliant eyes focusing right on Frank. “It’s not your fault,” he said firmly. “I know what you’re thinking, but it’s not. You tried your best to get through to him.”

 

Frank looked back at him, not knowing how to express how he felt internally. Again, Gerard seemed to understand without Frank even speaking, because he pulled Frank into an empty classroom and wrapped his arms around Frank, drawing Frank as close as he could possibly get. The string holding Frank together broke. He burst into sobs, loud and messy, against Gerard’s shoulder.

 

“It’s okay, Frankie,” Gerard murmured into his hair as he rubbed his back. “It’s going to be okay, I promise.”

 

He wanted to believe Gerard so badly it hurt, but at that very moment it didn’t feel like what he said was true. And he felt even worse as Gerard, sensitive Gerard who cared so much about others, silently cried into his shoulder. He knew Gerard felt just as awful as he did about the whole situation, but he was trying to hold it together for Frank. And that broke him.

 

.

 

Frank could not sleep. Every time he shut his eyes, he would see Tyler’s dead body sprawled in front of him, the breath falling from his lungs for the last time. His mind was plagued with thoughts along the lines of _you knew something was wrong, you could have stopped this, it’s all your fault_ , and he just wasn’t sure how to shut it off. He felt like he was going to tear his hair out.

 

Mikey and Pete were passed out in their respective beds across the room, and Frank was wondering if they’d notice if he snuck out when the door creaked open.

 

Frank was the only one who shot up, since he happened to be the only one who was awake. He noticed a figure of average height looming in the doorway and exhaled in relief as the boy walked over to his bed. “You scared me.”

 

“I figured you wouldn’t be able to sleep,” Gerard whispered. “And I couldn't really sleep either, so…”

 

“Come here,” Frank whispered back, scooting over in his bed. Gerard looked around guiltily before climbing in bed beside Frank. Frank threw the covers over Gerard, not caring how it was going to look to anyone else, just _not caring._

“I can’t get it out of my head either,” Gerard said quietly. “I just… I told you not to worry about it, and maybe if I hadn’t done that, maybe you would’ve been more aggressive with him, maybe he’d still…” Gerard’s voice was breaking. Frank could hear all the raw pain and guilt that he was feeling and he wanted so badly to make it all just go away.

 

“It’s not your fault,” Frank said, his throat still raw from crying. “If you’re going to say it’s your fucking fault, then it’s my fucking fault too, okay, I could’ve gone after him, I could’ve…” Tears were welling his eyes again. He willed them back.

 

“Frankie, no,” Gerard choked out.

 

Frank wrapped his arms around Gerard’s waist, pulling him closer to him in the bed.

 

Gerard sighed. “It’s not our faults, okay? It’s not yours, and I guess it’s not mine either. We’ll be okay.”

 

And he kept repeating that, _we’ll be okay, Frankie, you’ll be okay, it’s not your fault_ , until Frank finally dozed off. And Frank woke up just a few hours later from a horrible nightmare, but when he woke up, Gerard was there, with his mop of red hair and his somehow soothing scent, and Frank fell back asleep.

 

.

 

The next day, the whole castle was abuzz, people whispering in the hallways and shooting Frank and Gerard _looks_ whenever they walked by because they’d been in such proximity to the dead boy and hey, did you hear that they actually saw that Tyler boy _die_? Frank tried his best to block it all out; he had his own terrifying thoughts to deal with.

 

Mikey and Pete, at least, didn’t mention Gerard and Frank sleeping together or try to discuss it, but Frank saw the knowing grins they gave each other when they finally woke up. It probably didn’t help that Gerard went back to his dorm with his clothes and hair all mussed. At least no one was thinking about them right now when the school had much more important things to worry about.

 

Frank’s reputation had somehow become even more convoluted. At this point, he was now the short, weird gay guy who was probably dating Gerard, the Slytherin who was gay and probably Voldemort, but he was the fairly successful Gryffindor team’s Beater, so that deserved respect, and now he had watched Tyler Joseph die, so he was probably traumatized. No one really knew how to act around him. People would tiptoe around him in the hallways, whisper when he walked by, avoid eye contact when he stared them down. He didn’t have the energy to care.

 

The next day, after another mostly-sleepless night, Josh Dun appeared at his table during breakfast. “Can we talk?” he asked quietly.

 

Frank was a little horrified, thinking that the time had finally come – Tyler’s best friend had come to yell at him, to blame him for Tyler’s death. He nodded, though, feeling sick to his stomach. Gerard gave him a concerned look, but Mikey and Pete nodded in encouragement.

 

Once they got outside, Josh sighed, looking at the ground. “Frank,” he said. “I, uh, I heard you’d been beating yourself up about this. I just wanted to let you know that none of this is at all your fault. It’s more complicated than you’d think.”

 

Frank felt his whole body relax in relief. Josh wasn’t here to yell at him. “Tell me,” he said.

 

“Uh, well, people found out about the, you know, the club, and that he was gay,” Josh said, scratching the back of his head. “And the bullying got worse, and someone… someone used the Unforgivable Curse on him. Um, Crucio.” Josh bit his lip. “They found out who it was, of course, that awful guy from Slytherin, Gregory was his name I believe, and they’re expelling him, but they’re trying to cover it up, and I…” Josh’s eyes were welling with tears.

 

Frank leaned in to hug the small Hufflepuff boy. “I’m sorry,” he said quietly. “No one should have to go through this and especially at such a young age.”

 

But his mind was buzzing internally. This boy was basically killed for being gay, and his _murderer_ was being thrown out of school with no one knowing about how it had happened. The bullying would just start over, and the cycle would continue. If no one knew about what had happened, then history was doomed to repeat itself.

 

Frank was not about to let there be another victim.

 

.

 

He didn’t even tell Gerard about his plans. Gerard probably would’ve disapproved and had him look for a diplomatic solution, which was absolutely not what Frank was going for. The senseless death of a thirteen-year-old child was not something that could be solved with diplomacy. It required action; it required speech.

 

Tyler’s memorial ceremony was the next day. All of the Hogwarts staff and students gathered in the Great Hall to listen to Headmaster McGonagall give a speech about Tyler’s life and death. Frank’s knee kept jiggling as she gave a short introduction, and Gerard looked over at him weirdly.

 

“Tyler was a stellar student, loved by friends and classmates – “ Frank almost snorted at that, “—and he will be remembered for years to come. He was always so full of life and knowledge. We may never understand why he did this, but – “

 

Frank stood up, ignoring the gasps from all around him, and said in a loud, firm voice, “We know why he did this.” Everyone was staring at him, and McGonagall was silent. Perfect. “He did this because this school is so fucking homophobic. He did this because someone found out he was gay and used an Unforgivable Curse on him. He literally took his life because people couldn’t accept that he loved people they found it unacceptable to love. Now, if you’d stop being so fucking homophobic, stuff like this wouldn’t _fucking happen_ and no one would have to die.”

 

The whole Great Hall went silent. He could literally hear the sounds of jaws dropping. Then someone said “That’s enough, Iero” and Professor Armstrong was grabbing his arm and leading him out of the Hall. He didn’t even get enough time to check the expression on Gerard’s face, but he definitely heard a clap and then someone saying “ _Brendon_ ” in a warning tone, so he knew he had at least one supporter.

 

Professor Armstrong left him in Headmaster McGonagall’s office. He didn’t say anything to Frank, which left Frank wondering what Professor Armstrong thought of him now. Whatever – there was no use wondering; the deed had already been done.

 

After about half an hour of Frank fidgeting in his seat, Professor McGonagall came in and fixed Frank with a stern stare. Frank immediately said, “I’m sorry for interrupting your speech, Headmaster, and causing a disruption.”

 

“But you’re not sorry for what you said,” Headmaster McGonagall said.

 

“No, Headmaster, not at all,” Frank replied. “They needed to hear it.”

 

“Now Mr. Iero, I approve of your message, but I just wish you had said it with less vulgarities,” Headmaster McGonagall said, a small smile making its way onto her wrinkled face.

 

Frank almost laughed in surprise. “You – you approve?”

 

“Well, yes, I think those children need to hear it,” Headmaster McGonagall said. “Many of them are quite prejudiced. It reminds me of the whole Muggle-born thing all over again. I wish I could’ve said it myself, made a statement, but unfortunately I’m on thin ice as Headmaster already given some of my previous decisions. I’m very grateful to you for saying it, however.”

 

Frank grinned. “So I’m not in trouble?”

 

“Oh no, young man, you very much are,” Headmaster McGonagall said with a laugh. “You interrupted a headmaster’s speech, you said a multitude of vulgar words to the entirety of the school including the headmaster, and you made a fool of me. For that, I assign you detention for the rest of the school year with Hagrid and revocation of all privileges, including trips to Hogsmeade. In addition, I’m going to take fifty points from Gryffindor.”

 

Frank groaned, hanging his head. “I suppose it’s better than getting expelled,” he muttered.

 

“You’re damn right it is, and I could’ve easily justified doing so. Be grateful, Mr. Iero,” Headmaster McGonagall told him sternly before saying, “I’m also very proud of you, Mr. Iero, for standing up for what you believe. I can certainly see why you were placed in Gryffindor.”

 

Frank left with a small smile on his lips. Immediately, he was accosted by seven somewhat-guilty-looking boys who were all demanding to know what happened and what punishment he was being given.

 

“You weren’t expelled, were you?” Gerard asked.

 

“I’d feel bad if you were… that was my friend you were sticking up for,” Josh said glumly.

 

“That was fucking amazing,” Brendon praised.

 

“I’m mates with a legend,” Mikey said.

 

Frank laughed. “Guys, guys, calm down, everyone’s talking at once. Um, well, no I’m not expelled. I have detention, all my privileges are revoked, which means no Hogsmeade…” A collective groan echoed from the boys. “And, uh, I lost some Gryffindor house points.” Mikey and Pete both groaned. Brendon grinned at Gerard.

 

“Definitely worth it,” Brendon said.

 

“Everyone’s been talking about it,” Mikey chimed in. “Some people are calling you a hero. Other people are saying, well, not so kind words about you. But damn, was that brave. Now I feel unworthy of the Gryffindor title.”

 

“I may as well just go join fucking Hufflepuff after that bravery. I could never live up to that,” Pete confirmed. Ryan, Ray, and Josh all shot him glares.

 

“He’s right, though,” Gerard said, slinging an arm around his shoulder. “That was very brave of you.”

 

“Almost too brave,” Ray remarked with a grin. “You could’ve gotten your ass handed to you.”

 

“I really appreciate it,” Josh said, offering him a smile. “And I know Tyler would have too.”

 

“It’s not enough, though,” Frank said. “It’ll make people think for a little bit and maybe feel bad, but something bigger needs to happen for real change, you know?”

 

“I know,” Gerard said. “But maybe we can just stick with this for now.”

 

The seven of them walked back to the Great Hall, Brendon and Ryan blabbing on about something probably gay, Gerard telling a story about that one time he rode in a Muggle car to Mikey, Ray, and Pete with his arm still around Frank’s shoulders, and Josh walking on Frank’s other side. Frank couldn’t help but see the empty space beside Josh as where Tyler could have stood in another universe, a _better_ universe. He met Josh’s eyes and wondered if Josh was thinking the same thing.

 

.

 

Life went back to normal after that, or at least as normal as it could possibly be after the events that had transpired. Frank’s nightmares still happened, but at a lesser frequency and severity than they had at first. Gerard couldn’t keep up the habit of sneaking into Frank’s dorm every night, especially without arising misplaced suspicion from Mikey and Pete, so he stopped coming. Josh integrated seamlessly into their friend group, although he seemed out of it a lot of the time – thinking about someone who simply wasn’t there.

 

Mikey wasn’t very happy with him for getting banned from Hogsmeade when the second Hogsmeade trip of the year was announced. “We could have had a double date,” Mikey said, annoyed. “Me and Pete, you and Gee.”

 

“Gerard and I aren’t dating, for one,” Frank said. “For two, why the hell would we do a double date with you and _Pete_ even if we were dating?”

 

“Because you’re my friend, and I need moral support,” Mikey said. “Traitor.”

 

Frank briefly wondered why he was even friends with Mikey Way.

 

Pete slid in beside Mikey. “What are we talking about?”

 

“How Frank got himself banned from Hogsmeade so now he can’t even go to Hogsmeade with his favorite couple in the world next week,” Mikey said dramatically, leaning on to Pete’s shoulder. Pete winced a little bit, Frank noticed, but he didn’t pull away. Mikey tilted his head towards his brother as Gerard sat down. “You’re going to Hogsmeade, right Gee?”

 

“Fuck no I’m not,” Gerard said. “Not if Frankie’s not.”

 

Ray gave Gerard a shocked stare as he sat down. “You’re going to abandon your oldest friend at Hogsmeade? What am I supposed to do there without you?”

 

“You can find a nice girl – or boy, whatever you’re into,” Gerard said. “I’ll just stay here with Frank.”

 

Pete faked a cough. “Dating.”

 

“Shut up,” Frank said, kicking Pete under the table.

 

Brendon sat down then, his eyes gleaming with the potential for gossip, Frank was sure. “Who’s dating?”

 

“You and Ryan,” Frank said quickly.

 

“Well, yeah,” Brendon said, looking confused. “We’ve been dating for practically a month.”

 

“You _what_?” Pete practically screamed. “You’ve been dating for practically a month and you didn’t bother telling any of us? You’re disowned as a friend, Brendon Urie.”

 

“I thought we were keeping it lowkey,” Ryan muttered beside Brendon. Brendon just shrugged and mouthed an apology that didn’t look completely genuine.

 

“Congratulations, Brendon and Ryan,” Josh said from his place on Frank’s side. "Although we all saw this coming."

 

It all felt very normal, too normal, and Frank felt like too much had transpired over the past few days for everything to go back to normal so quickly. But unfortunately time kept moving with or without his consent. He still wanted something big to happen, something to shake everything up and make everyone realize how wrong they’d been to hurt Tyler, but he had no idea how to make that happen.

 

Something warm slipped in between his fingers, and after a second of confusion he realized that Gerard was holding his hand. He must have noticed Frank zone out; he always tended to see things like that, things that no one else saw. He was pretty much perfect. Too perfect for Frank, Frank thought, Frank who did things without thinking, Frank who was too loud, Frank who couldn’t sit still, Frank who had anger issues.

 

“Frank?” Brendon said, looking at Frank expectantly.

 

“No idea what you just said,” Frank said.

 

“Just say yes or no,” Brendon said, grinning evilly.

 

“Yes?” Frank said.

 

“Ha!” Brendon said, high-fiving Ryan. “I asked if you and Gerard want to have a double wedding with me and Ryan. No backing out now.”

 

Frank groaned and buried his flaming face in his arms, extracting his hand from Gerard’s. Gerard patted his back lightly, and Mikey muttered something about having a dork for a brother-in-law, to which Gerard pointed out that Pete was arguably the bigger dork.

 

Too normal, Frank thought glumly. And Tyler Joseph wasn’t here to experience it.

 

.

 

The rest of the year passed in a flurry of Quidditch games, preparations for exams, and detentions with Hagrid. Hagrid took him into the Forbidden Forest for some godforsaken reason, and although Frank found it pretty cool to talk to the centaurs, his encounter with those giant spiders left him hyperventilating on the ground afterwards. After Hagrid found Frank lying on the ground in a puddle of tears and sweat, he learned that taking Frank to visit the spiders wasn’t the best idea – no matter _how_ kind they were. Frank’s nightmares started to have an additional guest.

 

They lost to Slytherin again in the Quidditch Cup, much to Frank’s dismay and Brendon’s delight. Gerard said, “Next time you’ll get it, don’t worry.” Andy Hurley was left in a funk for weeks.

 

On quite a few occasions, Frank forgot about Tyler entirely. When he remembered again, though, he suddenly felt horrible, as if somehow Tyler would fade from existence by Frank’s lack of thinking about him. He didn’t know how to explain it to anyone else. Josh might understand, but then again Frank hadn’t really known Tyler as well as Josh. Josh would probably think it was weird that Frank was thinking about Tyler that much at all.

 

It was Gerard’s fifth year, so Gerard was faced with the formidable OWL exams. He spent most of his time revising, since he was a fairly good student, but that left Frank with lots of free time to mope. Mikey and Pete liked to sneak off alone to do whatever they did that he certainly did not want to know about, so he would hang out with Josh or Brendon and Ryan and pretend like he was revising as well. He spent a lot of time trying to perfect his DADA spells, the only spells he felt would come in handy, to the neglect of a few of his other subjects. Thankfully, Ray was there to help him out in the subjects he neglected when he panicked at the last minute – even though Ray had his own OWLs to revise for. Frank was eternally grateful for Ray.

 

Frank passed all his exams. He did extraordinarily well in DADA, and Professor Armstrong regarded him with a grin when Frank was nearly able to conjure up a Patronus. (He probably just needed a happier memory, Frank reasoned. Things hadn’t been particularly happy lately.)

 

On the last day before they left for home, after all the exams were finally over, Gerard met Frank in the Gryffindor common room. Frank raised an eyebrow at him. “How’d you even get in?”

 

“Mikey let me in,” Gerard said, half-smiling. “Our sibling telepathy comes in handy sometimes.”

 

“Shut up,” Frank groaned, leaning against his shoulder. Gerard slipped his arm around Frank, causing Frank to fall forwards against his chest. Neither of them moved.

 

“I’m sorry I haven’t been there for you lately,” Gerard whispered, running his hand through Frank’s hair in a soothing manner. “Things got really busy with exams and revision and all that shit.”

 

“It’s fine,” Frank said. “I’ve been fine.”

 

Gerard gave him a knowing look. “Frank, even though I haven’t been here, I’ve still seen you, and you always look like you’re… far away. I don’t know. Thinking. Lost in your own mind. You’re still upset about the Tyler thing, aren’t you?”

 

“Still upset?” Frank shot up, pushing Gerard’s arm away. “You say that like I should be over it by now.”

 

“I didn’t mean –“

 

“I watched a thirteen-year-old boy die in front of my eyes, and it was probably my fault, and now I don’t know how to stop it from happening again,” Frank said heatedly, staring at Gerard with blazing eyes. “And now – “

 

“Frankie!” Gerard practically yelled. It was the loudest Gerard had ever been with him. It shocked him out of his ranting; he simply shut up and stared at Gerard, his eyes wide. Gerard Way was probably one of the least intimidating people in the world generally, but right now he looked terrifying. Gerard sighed. “Sorry, Frankie, I didn’t mean to yell. I just – I’m sorry, first of all, I didn’t mean to imply you should be over it. I don’t think any of us will ever really get over it. But Frankie, you already _are_ making sure it doesn’t happen again. I see the way you keep an eye on all the people you think could be at risk. Plus, attitudes are already changing – because of what _you_ did. After my exam yesterday some girl and I were talking and she said she used to be against gay people or whatever but _you_ changed her mind with your speech. _You_ , Frank Iero. Now tell me you’re not stopping it from happening again.”

 

“That’s just one girl…”

 

“Well, it starts with one girl. And then she influences her friends, and then her friends influence their friends, and then acceptance becomes more widespread all because you started it.”

 

Frank sighed and leaned back into Gerard. “I suppose that makes sense.”

 

“I know you like things to happen quickly, Frankie,” Gerard said, running his hand through Frank’s hair. “But sometimes things just don’t go like that. Some things take time.”

 

Frank nodded, feeling more content than he had in ages. Gerard tended to have that effect on him. At the same time, though, his heart was swelling, a strange feeling that made him consider that his feelings for Gerard were more than just a crush. He’d never experienced romantic love before, but he was starting to think that this might be the real thing. And it terrified him.

 

.

 

Before leaving for home, he made his usual plans with the Way brothers to visit during the summer. He decided that this summer he would try to think up some advocacy campaigns for the club the next year so that the wave of acceptance he’d started would continue. The rest of his time, of course, would be spent with mindless video games and trying to distract himself from the horrors of the last year.

 

This plan didn’t work out too well when he walked in the house and, after giving him the usual motherly hugs and kisses, his mother immediately said, “Frankie, the headmaster sent a letter to say that some kid from your school died, Tyler Joseph or something. Did you know him? What happened?”

 

Frank jumped a bit at the mention of Tyler’s name and then bit his lip, hoping his mom wouldn’t notice his reaction. “Oh, uh, yeah. He killed himself. I didn’t really know him. He was younger than me.”

 

“He must have been very young then,” his mother said sympathetically. “His poor family. Frankie, you come talk to me if you ever feel like that, okay?”

 

“Of course, Mum,” he said, lugging his trunk to his room.

 

Throughout the next few weeks, his mom would randomly try to talk to him about Tyler, offhandedly asking if he’d had any classes with Frank or if Frank knew why Tyler would’ve killed himself. Frank knew he couldn’t put it off any longer, so he finally just sat his mother down and said, “I knew Tyler a little more than I let on.”

 

“I knew it,” his mother said triumphantly.

 

“Save it,” Frank said weakly. “He was gay, and he was outed by people from school. So he was bullied a lot by practically everyone. And I knew him because… because I’m gay, too.”

 

“Frankie,” his mother said, pulling Frank into a hug. “Oh, Frank, I had a feeling, but I didn’t want to ask… thank you for telling me. You know I love you no matter what.”

 

“Of course, Mum,” Frank said, feeling quite a bit relieved. He hadn’t thought his mother would reject him, but there was always that niggling worry at the back of his mind, especially after the stories he’d heard at the GASD club. He wished everyone could have the same support system he had.

 

He had a lot of his mind by the time he got to the Ways’, but the two of them managed to distract him for the week he was there. They watched movies, talked about people at school, and basically never left him alone with his thoughts. Both of them expressed their pride at him having come out to his mother, which made him feel a little better about the whole thing.

 

“I don’t think I had to come out to my mum,” Gerard said with a laugh. “She probably figured it out when I was five and kept wearing her high heels.”

 

“When I came out and also told her about Pete, mum nearly had a heart attack,” Mikey chimed in. “She still hasn’t met him. Hopefully he’ll get to come visit before the end of the summer, but we’ll see.” Mikey grinned wickedly. “She’s already met Gerard’s boyfriend.”

 

“Shut _up_!” Gerard squeaked.

 

“Gee has a boyfriend?” Frank said, raising an eyebrow and looking between the two brothers.

 

“Oh, Frank,” Mikey said, almost collapsing with laughter. Gerard had gone completely beet red.

 

“You’d better not be talking about me, you tosser,” Frank said, glaring at Mikey.

 

Mikey just kept laughing.

 

.

 

On the last night of his visit, after more movies and more of Mikey _heavily hinting_ that Gerard and Frank should date and Frank punching him a few times to get him to shut up, Gerard showed up in his room. Frank wasn’t really surprised. He scooted over in his bed so that Gerard could crawl in beside him.

 

Gerard looked over at him. “I’m glad you got to come again. Summer passes really slowly when you’re not with me.”

 

Frank gulped. _That could be completely platonic_ , he reminded himself, but his brain was still primed with all the suggestive things Mikey had said about the two of them. “Me too,” he managed.

 

“I’m really proud of you for telling your mum, Frankie,” Gerard said, snuggling up against him. “You’ve been really brave this year. I feel like you’ve really shown your true Gryffindor colours.”

 

Frank laughed. “I still don’t get why you’re a Slytherin, though.”

 

“Oh, please, I’m terrifying and intimidating and ambitious,” Gerard said, half a smile on his face. “I’m the epitome of Slytherin.”

 

“People are only scared of you because of that weird rumour that you’re the son of Voldemort or some shit,” Frank said. “How did that start, anyways?”

 

Gerard gave an exaggerated sigh. “Well, my second year I drew a snake on my arm in class because snakes are fucking amazing and someone thought it was a Death Eater symbol and the rumours just got worse and now I’m the second coming of Voldemort.”

 

“Too bad they haven’t actually talked to you,” Frank snorted. “If they did, they’d find out that you’re an actual pansy.”

 

“I am _not_ ,” Gerard protested.

 

“You cried in Herbology when the professor accidentally dropped a Mandrake on the floor,” Frank said through laughter.

 

“How did you – “

 

“Ray told me,” Frank explained.

 

“Fuck Ray,” Gerard groaned. Frank started exploding into laughter again, so Gerard rolled over to his side and started tickling him. But he didn’t stop there, despite Frank’s shrieks and insistence that Gerard should get off of him. He climbed on top of Frank. And then he stopped, his face right over Frank’s, breath fanning over Frank’s face.

 

Gerard was far too close for Frank’s raging hormones to tolerate and before Frank could stop himself, he was leaning in and pressing his lips against Gerard’s.

 

It was Frank’s first kiss, and it certainly wasn’t bad. Gerard’s mouth was warm against his. For a few seconds, Gerard didn’t pull away. Their mouths moved a little against each other’s. And then Gerard was pulling back and giving him a confused look and Frank’s brain exploded.

 

He pushed Gerard off of him and ran out of the room, ignoring Gerard’s calls of “Frank!” and “This is your room” behind him. He made his way to the kitchen, then realized it was on the way to Gerard’s basement room and stepped outside.

 

After a few minutes of standing outside, his phone buzzed. It was a text from Gerard that said _i’m out of your room._ That was all. Frank exhaled, taking this as a confirmation that he had screwed up his friendship with Gerard, and went back into the house.

 

In the morning he said goodbye to Mikey, but Gerard didn’t even come to the door to say goodbye. Mikey looked incredibly confused, but Frank just mumbled something along the lines of “Gerard said goodbye last night”.

 

“We’ll see you soon, Frank,” Mikey said cheerfully, looking like he suspected something was going on between the two of them. Frank just mumbled a quick goodbye and ducked out the door.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you all enjoyed that! I'm really sorry to Tyler Joseph in advance for killing him off. I really do love Twenty One Pilots.
> 
> Please keep leaving comments! I didn't think anyone was really reading this story, but then I got two comments in a row talking about how they wanted to see this story updated and it made me really happy, so I decided to post this! (I have the whole story written already, just need to edit the individual chapters, so it's not a lot of hardship for me.)


	4. Year Four

For the next few weeks, he didn’t do anything but sulk. He didn’t text Gerard even once, and when Mikey or Josh or Brendon texted him, he gave short, simple replies. He was sure by the time he got back to school, everyone would hate him, including his mother, who was constantly nagging him to get out and do something with his summer. When he refused, she jumped to the conclusion that he was depressed and suicidal and kept him under constant supervision, which served to make him more upset and, one day when he was particularly angry at the world, he accidentally punched a hole in the wall. Then he was kept under even more stringent supervision and the cycle continued.

 

By the time the summer was over, Frank had never been so happy to get to school. At least there he could sulk in peace – well, besides the barrier that was Gerard Way. He had a feeling that the long ride to school was not going to go well.

 

He was proven correct. Gerard sat as far as possible away from him. Neither he nor Gerard said a single word the entire train ride. He noticed Brendon shoot a concerned look at Mikey, who simply shrugged in response, but no one brought it up. Brendon filled the silence with his meaningless babbling about his summer and Ryan. For once, Frank was very grateful. It made everything else a hell of a lot less awkward.

 

Once they got off of the train, Frank was taken aback. The carriages he’d ridden in for years that had been pulled by nothing now had huge, intimidating creatures. Thinking back, he remembered Gerard had told him the creatures were visible only to those who had seen death. Mikey had dismissed it as a myth, but he supposed it had to be true. He felt a sudden surge of panic all throughout his body, but he forced himself to follow Ray, Pete, and Mikey into a carriage, leaving Gerard with Josh, Brendon, and Ryan. He almost felt bad.

 

“So, what’s going on, Frank?” Ray asked once they sat down.

 

“Dunno what you’re talking about,” Frank mumbled.

 

“Oh, come on,” Ray said. “Usually you’re bouncing off the walls with energy and chatting our bloody ears off. Now neither you or Gee have spoken a word this whole entire ride. I can tell when something’s up, Frank. Did something happen with you and Gee?”

 

“Yeah,” Frank said, hanging his head.

 

“You fought?”

 

“Something like that,” Frank said. “I ruined everything.”

 

Mikey rolled his eyes. “Look, Frank, if I know anything in this world, I know my brother, and he literally loves you more than anything – sorry, Ray, you and I are a close second, I’m sure – so I don’t think there’s anything you could do to ruin that.”

 

“You’d be surprised,” Frank said, but Mikey just shook his head in response.

 

“You should talk to him,” Pete chimed in. “Nothing’s going to get worked out with you guys just sulking and avoiding each other.”

 

“I’ll try,” Frank lied. He was far too cowardly to approach Gerard on his own, though, and pretty much everyone knew it, so they just sighed.

 

“You’ve gotta work something out soon,” Ray told him. “You’re just making it awkward for everyone else at the moment, you know? I love both of you, you’re both two of my closest friends, and it’s going to be so annoying if you refuse to be in the same room.”

 

“I’ll talk to him,” Frank repeated. Once again, no one believed him.

 

.

 

It took exactly a week of awkward shuffling around of the table so that Frank and Gerard wouldn’t be near each other and Frank literally jumping behind statues in the hallways to avoid Gerard before Mikey got fed up. And when Mikey got fed up, Mikey was very serious about it, and he refused to take no for an answer.

 

He had Frank by one arm and Gerard by the other, muttering some spell under his breath to keep them from punching him or each other (Mikey was apparently a prodigy at wandless magic when he was angry, Frank mused). Gerard was protesting, something about “Mikey, you don’t know what you’re doing” and Frank heard himself unconsciously doing the same, his heart speeding up to a rate he didn’t know was possible. Mikey didn’t listen to either of them. Instead, he pulled a door to a classroom open and slung them both inside.

 

“You can come out when you’ve fucking made up,” he yelled into the room. “We’re guarding the room from all sides, so don’t waste your time or our time trying to find a way out. Just bloody talk to each other.”

 

Gerard sighed and looked at Frank. Frank had forgotten just how much he missed Gerard’s face. His heart gave a little skip. He decided it was useless trying to avoid the conversation and started out with, “Gerard, I’m sorry.”

 

“Sorry?” Gerard said, looking confused.

 

“Yeah,” Frank said. “I’m sorry for kissing you and everything. I know I messed up _completely_. It’s just, I’ve got a bit of a crush on you, and I understand if you want to avoid me from now on or something – “

 

“Frank,” Gerard cut in, staring at him. “Frank, that’s not why I was avoiding you. Bloody hell, I was avoiding you because I thought you regretted the kiss, not because – wait, you have a crush on me?”

 

“Well, yes,” Frank said. “I thought I made that pretty obvious.”

 

Gerard blushed, rubbing the back of his neck. “I suppose I’m as oblivious as Mikey loves to say I am.”

 

And then he was walking towards Frank. Frank didn’t have much time to think as Gerard pulled him close, pressing his lips against Frank’s. It was better than the first kiss, since they were both very obviously into it, and Frank felt his whole body becoming warm.

 

Gerard pulled away at last, grinning. Frank felt himself smiling back. “What the hell, you idiot,” he said. “I thought you hated me and thought I was the fuckingfor crushing on you. I was beating myself up for weeks.”

 

“I’ve had a crush on you for ages, idiot,” Gerard shot back. “You could’ve just told me.”

 

“I didn’t want to ruin our friendship,” Frank said quietly.

 

“Frank, I don’t think _anything_ you could ever do would ruin you and me,” Gerard said, wrapping his arms around Frank.

 

“So I’ve got your permission to kill someone?”

 

“Only if it’s Gregory,” Gerard amended.

 

Frank laughed, ducking his head into Gerard’s chest. “So what are we, then?”

 

Gerard extracted himself from around Frank to kneel down on one knee in front of him. “Frank Anthony Iero Jr., you beautiful half-blood, will you be my boyfriend?”

 

“That’s only for marriage proposals, you fucking dork,” Frank said, his cheeks heating up. Gerard just grinned, clearly waiting for an answer, so Frank said, “Yes, of course I will.”

 

Gerard stood up, brushing off his knees, and leaned in to kiss him again. Frank was filled with a sense of wonder as Gerard’s lips brushed against his, and he tried to pull Gerard as close to him as possible. This boy, the boy he’d had a crush on for almost a year now, was now his boyfriend. His _boyfriend_. How in the world had he gotten so lucky?

 

A loud shriek echoed through the room. Gerard and Frank sprung apart to see Brendon Urie staring at them, a shocked but delighted expression on his face. “Congratulations!” he said, grinning. “But make sure you use protection. That’s very important.”

 

Frank was sure his face was practically the color of Gerard’s hair.

 

Mikey shrugged. “I saw this coming. But Frank, just so you know, hurt Gee and I’ll kill you. And please don’t tell me anything about your, um, escapades with my brother. Beyond that, congrats.”

 

Ray, Ryan, Josh, and Pete emerged from their respective positions, all echoing sentiments of congratulations. Frank, on the other hand, was a still a little chagrined that they’d just stood there and watched all of that. Was nothing in his life private?

 

Gerard rolled his eyes and grabbed Frank’s hand, pulling him out of the classroom and yelling behind him, “We’ve made up, so we’re allowed to leave.”

 

“Made up _and_ made out,” Brendon yelled back.

 

Frank flipped him off.

 

.

 

Being with Gerard was everything Frank had imagined and more.

 

It was sitting beside Gerard in the Great Hall at every meal, holding hands under the table, sometimes putting his head on Gerard’s shoulder and letting Gerard stroke his hair. It was skipping classes to go make out in random corridors and closets that Gerard had discovered. It was Gerard sneaking into his dorm on random nights so that they could cuddle all night and somehow waking up and escaping before Mikey and Pete could wake up and catch them. It wasn’t perfect, of course; no relationship was, but it was more than Frank had ever imagined he could even have. He still wasn’t sure he deserved it.

 

His birthday was coming up, though, which made Frank nervous and excited at the same time. He’d never been in a relationship on his birthday, and he didn’t really know what to expect. He tried asking Mikey, but all Mikey gave him was “even if I did know what Gee was planning, why would I tell you?” and Frank had to acknowledge that he had a good point.

 

On the morning of his birthday, he woke up to the sound of Pete and Mikey’s snoring. _Gross_ , he thought upon realizing they’d slept in the same bed. He clambered out of bed, got dressed, and slipped down to the Great Hall.

 

Gerard was standing in front of the entrance to the Great Hall, positively beaming. “Happy birthday!” he said, kissing him quickly on the lips and ignoring the gags from random people that ensued. “My boyfriend’s fifteen now – I don’t feel quite so ancient. Come on, let’s go sit down.”

 

The two of them navigated through the Great Hall, their hands linked. They slid into their table and Gerard put his arm around Frank, pulling him close. Ray, sitting across the table, groaned. “Where are Pete and Mikey? I’m third-wheeling here.”

 

“Once Pete and Mikey get here you’ll be fifth-wheeling,” Gerard pointed out.

 

Ray considered this for a second, then eloquently said, “Fuck.” He sighed. “Where’s Josh, then?”

 

“Can’t you be nice to me on my birthday?” Frank asked hopefully.

 

“Happy birthday, Frank,” Ray said. “Now let’s hope Josh gets here before you two start shagging on the table.”

 

Frank rolled his eyes and, to spite Ray, gave Gerard a long kiss on the mouth. Mikey, of course, chose that opportune time to show up and gag loudly. “What a way to start the day.”

 

“My saviours,” Ray said, burying his head in his hands.

 

“Happy birthday, Frank,” Pete said in way of greeting.

 

“Yeah, happy birthday,” Mikey said, walking across the table to give him a half-hug. “You’ve got a busy day ahead of you.”

 

Brendon showed up then, Ryan and Josh behind him, and the three of them started up a rendition of “Happy Birthday” to which the rest of the table joined in. Gerard rubbed his back as he sang, but it did little to ease his embarrassment.

 

After breakfast, they stopped by the Gryffindor common room to bestow Frank with gifts before classes. Mikey and Pete, being Mikey and Pete, had gotten Frank a whole bunch of stupid prank gifts, including something called a Puking Pastille (“just in case you need an excuse to skip class to do something else,” Pete said suggestively. Mikey hit him). Brendon and Ryan collaborated to get him to get a surprisingly useful new set of quills and some chocolates, so Frank assumed it was mostly Ryan’s idea. Josh gave him a colorful scarf, and Ray gave him an awful-looking horror movie on DVD, which Frank was very grateful for.

 

Gerard’s gift was, of course, extremely Gerard, and so extremely sentimental. There was a picture from Frank’s first Quidditch game of the two of them hugging (Frank figured Mikey probably took it, the little bugger) framed, a letter, and a new jumper that smelled a lot like Gerard, which meant that Gerard had probably figured out that Frank had nicked a few of his jumpers in the past. _Oops_ , Frank thought, grinning at Gerard.

 

Class was boring, as usual. Frank swore he heard someone whisper “it’s the little poof’s birthday” during Charms, but he shot them a glare and there were no more incidents. After class, he set off for his dorm when Mikey Way grabbed his wrist.

 

“We have a SAGD meeting,” Mikey told him.

 

“No, we don’t,” Frank said, confused. “I thought it was on Wednesday…”

 

“Well, Gee changed it,” Mikey said impatiently, and Frank suddenly realized what was going on. He let Mikey drag him to the Room of Requirement.

 

Mikey said, “Imagine a birthday party.”

 

“You know, you’re absolute shit at surprises,” Frank said, but he did what Mikey said anyways and then the door opened to reveal a whole horde of people. Frank blinked once, twice, and then three times, but the people were still there. _What the fuck_ , he thought.

 

Gerard emerged from the pack, grinning at him. “Happy birthday, Frankie.”

 

“What the fuck,” Frank said.

 

“These are all your fans,” Gerard said. “All the gay kids, of course, and then some more that wanted to show support for, you know, you, us, everyone. Especially after the Tyler thing. So I figured one of the best gifts I could give you would be the gift of showing you how much of a difference you’re making. These people, they’re here for you, they’re here for Tyler, and they’re here for us.”

 

Frank launched himself at Gerard, nearly knocking him into Hayley Williams, but not caring at all. “Thank you so much,” he whispered in Gerard’s ear. “I love you.” And then he darted off, knowing he’d just taken a huge step fairly quickly, but there was far too much adrenaline in his body for him to care.

 

He ran into a girl he didn’t recognize who regarded him with a small smile. After introducing herself as Lily, a fourth-year Slytherin, she said, “You know, I used to really disagree with what I thought was the gay lifestyle. But after seeing what happened to that boy, and how you stood up for him, I’m changing my mind. And now I’m starting to think that I… that I might be a lesbian myself.”

 

“Congratulations on figuring that out,” Frank said sincerely, but his head was spinning. It seemed that things were finally starting to improve. Could people really change their opinions so quickly?

 

The rest of the party passed in a similar fashion, people he’d never met coming up to him and telling him that their minds had been changed, either through the club’s efforts or through his speech or through Tyler’s death. This had to be at least a good part of the school, Frank thought idly.

 

After the socializing finished and people started to trickle out, someone else grabbed his wrist. Frank was getting pretty sick of being dragged places, but once he realized it was Gerard, he stopped fighting and let Gerard drag him to yet another empty classroom. Once he got there, he realized Gerard was staring at him in a very unexpectedly intense way.

 

“What’s going…” Frank got out before Gerard crushed their lips together. Frank didn’t complain, of course.

 

After a few minutes of intense making out, Gerard pulled away and whispered, “I love you too.”

 

Frank grinned, a wave of euphoria riding through him, before he pulled Gerard back to him and whispered “I love you,” again against his lips.

 

All in all, Frank thought, it was a pretty successful birthday.

 

.

 

Classes were getting tougher, unfortunately for Frank. Even though it was just fourth year, the professors were already obsessed with preparing them for the OWLs, which Frank was sure he’d probably not get too many of.

 

“I got seven,” Gerard said. “About average, I’d say. So I’m sure you’ll do even better than me.”

 

Frank knew this was false information, since Gerard was much better at concentrating and overall did much better in school than Frank did, but he did not point this out to his boyfriend, who was probably just trying to be sweet.

 

The Christmas holidays rolled around, and suddenly he was faced with the possibility of two weeks without Gerard. When he voiced this fear to Gerard, Gerard just smiled. “I’m not going to let that happen,” he promised.

 

And sure enough, a day after Christmas, he got a text from Gerard that read _let’s go on a real date. dinner & dessert in the city_, and Frank replied _ur doing great w/Muggle communication gee. and yeah sure. tomorrow night?._ Gerard said _ill pick u up._

 

Which meant he would have to tell his mother about Gerard and then introduce the two of them. Frank sighed, resigning himself to his fate, and then walked into the room with his mother.

 

“Mum, I have a boyfriend,” Frank said.

 

His mum, who had been on the phone with somebody (probably her latest boyfriend), said “I’ll call you back” very quickly, hung up, and stared at Frank in shock that quickly turned to excitement. “Your first boyfriend,” she said with a grin. “I’m happy for you, baby. Let me guess, it’s one of those Way boys you always talk about and go to visit.”

 

“The older one,” Frank said with a long-suffering sigh. “His name’s Gerard. And he wants to take me on a date tomorrow.”

 

“To where?” his mum said, raising an eyebrow. “Frankie, you’re still kind of young…”

  
“Just to dinner, mom, we’ll be in public and everything, and then he’ll bring me back home.”

 

“How old is this boy?” his mum inquired.

  
“He’s just sixteen, not that much older than me,” Frank said. “But he’s in sixth year right now.”

 

“Okay, fine, but I’ll definitely need to meet him first,” his mum acquiesced. “He’ll come here first to get you.”

 

“That was the plan all along,” Frank said with a groan.

 

And so the next day, Gerard Way showed up at his front door with a bouquet of flowers like something out of a movie. Had it been anyone else, Frank probably would have slammed the front door in their face, but since it was Gerard, he took the flowers, tried not to blush, and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

 

“Mum!” he hollered upstairs. “Gerard’s here.”

 

His mother darted down the stairs, coming to a slow stop in front of the boys. She grinned. “So you must be the famous Gerard I’ve heard so much about.”

 

“Yes, that would be me,” Gerard said, slightly blushing. “I do wonder what Frank has said about me, though.”

 

“Mostly good things,” his mother answered. “But I do warn you, if you hurt my son you certainly won’t live to see another day.”

 

“I’d never dream of it, Ms. Iero,” Gerard said.

 

“Very polite, Frankie. I approve,” his mum said, kissing Frank on the head. “Have a good night, boys. Gerard, he has to be home by ten if not earlier.”

 

“Sounds good, Ms. Iero.”

 

“See you later, Mum,” Frank said as the two of them headed out the door.

 

“Was I okay?” Gerard said. “I’m not usually very good with parents.” He was wringing his hands, which made Frank laugh because of how absurdly adorable it was.

 

“You were perfect,” Frank told him. “My mum probably won’t stop talking about you for days now.”

 

Gerard grinned. “Anyways,” he said. “I was thinking we could go to this one pizza shop I found, but I, uh, I don’t really know how you Muggles get places, so…”

 

“Wait,” Frank said. “So you don’t have a car?” When Gerard shook his head meekly, Frank sighed. “Gee, usually when you offer to pick someone up, it’s because you have a car and you’re going to drive them. How did you get here?”

 

“I, uh, I got my Mum to Apparate with me, and then she left,” Gerard said, scratching the back of his neck. “I didn’t really think this far ahead.”

 

“Idiot,” Frank mumbled, giving him a quick kiss on the lips. “It’s fine, I’ll just call a cab. If we stay in the area it shouldn’t be too expensive.”

 

“Yeah, it should only be a few miles away,” Gerard said.

 

They got there about a half an hour later. Frank was a little annoyed, but it was kind of amusing that Gerard couldn’t survive in the Muggle world without him, so he tried not to let it get the best of him. Besides, he was just as useless in the wizarding world when he’d first started at Hogwarts, and Gerard had dealt with him then.

 

“It smells amazing,” Frank remarked as the two walked through the door.

 

“I agree,” Gerard said. “I love pizza. It’s one of my favorite American delicacies.”

 

“Pretty sure pizza’s Italian, fuckhead. Just like me.”

 

Gerard stuck his tongue out and then turned to the hostess. “Table for two, please.”

 

The worker looked a little bewildered as she turned from Gerard, with his bright red hair and general scruffy appearance, to Frank, wearing a button-up shirt, ripped jeans, and a bit of artfully placed guyliner, but to her credit all she said was, “Certainly. Right this way.” Gerard and Frank exchanged glances before following her.

 

After they sat down and placed their orders, Gerard said, “I’m so glad we got to sneak in a date before school started, even if it is in the Muggle world.”

 

“The Muggle world is my world, arse,” Frank retorted, but he was smiling. “I missed you. It’s kind of stupid, considering we’ve only been apart like a week, but… I did.”

 

“I missed you too,” Gerard said, leaning across the table to kiss Frank’s cheek. Frank could almost hear the snide comments being whispered by the place’s more conservative patrons, but he honestly didn’t care.

 

All that mattered was that he had the world’s most gorgeous boy perched across from him in the booth. He could block everything else out.

 

.

 

The rest of Christmas holidays were very boring without Gerard, save for his mother drilling him about Gerard. He spent most of his time texting Gerard about the banalities of every day life and hearing about Pete meeting Gerard’s mother. Gerard swore his mother preferred Frank to Pete, simply because Pete’s lack of a filter was second only to Brendon’s. Still, Frank was very glad when they reconvened at Hogwarts a week later.

 

When he got back, though, it served as a horrible reminder that it had almost been a year since everything with Tyler went down. A year ago, he had come back from break and tried to talk to Tyler, only to be shunned. And then just a little while after that…

 

Gerard, of course, practically read his mind. After dinner the first night, he pulled Frank aside and said, “I feel like we should do something for the anniversary.”

 

Frank pulled Gerard into a hug. He felt much more comfortable talking about the subject when he had close contact with Gerard. Sighing, he said, “Me too.”

 

“Let’s talk to Josh tomorrow, okay?”

 

The next day they pulled Josh aside after breakfast and said, “We want to talk to you.”

 

Josh, having become a snarky little boy, said, “I’m not interested in a threesome.”

 

Frank laughed. Gerard groaned. “It’s serious.”

 

“Got it,” Josh replied, seeming to comprehend what the subject at hand was. The three of them walked to a more private corridor.

 

“It’s almost been a year,” Frank said once they arrived.

 

“Yeah,” Josh answered, his voice sounding strained. Frank knew that it was still hard for him to talk about, but he also knew that it was important and that it had to be discussed. “It sometimes feels like it’s been longer, but it also feels like just yesterday he was here with me. It’s weird.”

 

“I’m sorry, Josh.” Frank felt a little uncomfortable, since he hadn’t really known Tyler as well, but he continued nonetheless. “We were thinking maybe we could do something for the anniversary. Create a memorial or something.”

 

“I think that would be nice,” Josh said quietly. “I’m sure he would like that.” They were all quiet for a minute, and then Josh spoke again. “I know it’s weird. I only knew him for a year and a half, but he was the person I was closest to in the world. I’m sure that even when I get older I won’t forget him. I don’t want to.”

 

All three of them paused again, and then Gerard said, “Then let’s do this. We won’t forget.”

 

.

 

It turned out that Josh had an old picture of him and Tyler stashed in his dorm room from their first year. One of the school photographers had taken it, Josh said. In the photo, Josh’s arm was wrapped around Tyler’s neck. He was ruffling Tyler’s hair with his other hand. Frank watched the moving photo, mesmerized, as Josh’s hand went back and forth across Tyler’s hair. He’d never really gotten used to photos from the wizarding world.

 

“This should do,” Gerard was saying beside him. “And maybe we could get a flower wreath. Although I guess we can’t just go shopping, so we’ll have to weave one out of flowers I guess?”

 

Frank snorted, imagining Gerard and Josh weaving a flower wreath in a field of flowers, and Gerard glared at him. “You can try,” he offered. “Good luck.”

 

Gerard huffed at him. “I don’t know where else we’d get a flower wreath. You’re helping us anyways, you twit.”

 

So Gerard, Josh, and Frank weaved a wreath in the fields over near the Quidditch pitch, out in the sunlight where everyone could see them. Josh, ever the Hufflepuff, smiled and waved at everyone who walked by, and Gerard, who was too much of a ray of sunshine to be in Slytherin, just half-smiled and nodded at people. Frank felt like he was sacrificing what little was left of his masculinity. It was worth it, at least.

 

During breakfast on the anniversary of his death, the three of them brought the wreath with the photo on it to the Great Hall. Gerard muttered a levitation spell to keep it floating in front of them as they walked in, and he left it up there among all the candles.

 

Frank, who, of course, had been elected as the spokesperson for this event, stood at the front of the Great Hall, all eyes on him. He said in a loud, firm voice, “A year ago, Tyler Joseph died on the grounds of this very castle. A year ago, a few of us Hogwarts students watched him die. He killed himself, but the events that led up to it were the real cause. He was bullied to death by members of our very own student body because of his sexual orientation. We want you to know that if you’re experiencing this, you’re not alone, and you have people who will stick up for you. We also want you to know that we are people too and that your bullying has real and severe consequences. Let’s stop hate together. Thank you.”

 

As Frank sat down, he heard a smattering of applause, probably from all of the people that were at his birthday party. He also heard some people snickering and whispering, and it took all his growing self-restraint to not go over and punch them right in the face. _Breathe in, breathe out_ , he whispered to himself.

 

“That was amazing,” Gerard whispered, grabbing his hand and pulling him down next to him. “You’re amazing.”

 

“I hope your spell is enough to keep the picture up there all day,” Frank responded, trying not to laugh. “It’d be pretty unfortunate if it fell on top of someone.”

 

He was a little afraid that Josh would be offended, but Josh just said, “I hope it falls on Brendon.”

 

“Hey!” Brendon said with a mock glare.

 

“That’s my boyfriend you’re talking about and… actually, yeah, I hope it falls on Brendon.” Ryan laughed.

 

Frank couldn’t help but join in. Gerard squeezed his hand under the table, and Frank thought that maybe it was possible to remember and still be happy. Maybe moving on didn’t necessitate forgetting.

 

.

 

“We’re going to Hogsmeade this year,” Gerard said to Frank as the two of them sat down for lunch a few days later.

 

“Oh yeah, Hogsmeade,” Frank mused. He’d forgotten that Hogsmeade was even a thing, considering the only year he’d been able to go he’d been banned from going for making a scene at Tyler Joseph’s funeral. “Shall we call it a date then?”

 

“Yes, of course, m’lady,” Gerard replied in a pompous voice.

 

Mikey, who seemed to have a knack for popping in at all the wrong times, sat down and said, “It’s going to be a quadruple date.”

 

Gerard and Frank exchanged a look and Gerard asked, “ _Quadruple_? You and Pete, Brendon and Ryan, and…?”

 

“Josh and Ray,” Pete said. Ray nearly choked on his food. Rolling his eyes, Pete continued, “You want to be included, don’t you?”

 

“It’ll be a platonic date,” Josh said.

 

“Good,” Ray said, eyeing Josh with casual suspicion. “Cause I don’t date 12 year olds.”

 

“Thirteen,” Josh corrected him. Ray ignored him.

 

“This weekend,” Mikey said. “Be there or be square.”

 

.

 

All of them showed up.

 

It was still a bit chilly, so all of them were bundled in winter wear, most noticeably Ryan Ross in an entire matching winter outfit. The chill was so bad that Frank had to stick his hand into Gerard’s pocket so that they could hold hands.

 

“Gross,” Brendon coughed when he noticed.

 

“Brendon, I don’t want to hear it,” Frank shot back. “I literally saw you grinding on Ryan at one of the Quidditch afterparties.”

 

“Ryan liked it,” Brendon told him.

 

Frank glanced back behind him to where Mikey and Pete were walking, their shoulders brushing together, but no other physical contact between them. Mikey didn’t look too happy with their current positioning, but Pete looked very content. Sighing, Frank turned back to Josh, who was walking on his other side.

 

“Where’s your date?” Frank asked teasingly.

 

“You mean my sugar daddy?” Josh asked. “Right behind you.”

 

“I am _not_ your sugar daddy,” Ray griped. “This isn’t really a date.”

 

“Right,” Josh said, nodding. “But you’re paying for my meal, right?”

 

Frank felt Gerard chuckle beside him. He glanced over to his other side to see Gerard’s brilliant smile lighting up his face. Against the pale background of winter, Gerard’s bright red hair and brilliant smile gave him the appearance of an angel. He felt his heart swell again, but this time he wasn’t afraid and he simply whispered, “I love you,” to Gerard, who simply smiled and whispered it back.

 

“I wasn’t aware you felt that way about me, Frank and Gerard,” Brendon said, sticking his head in between the two of them. Frank scowled and pushed Brendon out of the way. Brendon just laughed and started jogging down the road, claiming it was the only way to keep warm.

 

Josh grinned and then ran after him, exclaiming “You know, for once Brendon’s right. This really does work!”

 

“It’s nice to see Josh happy,” Gerard muttered. “Especially after everything with Tyler. He was so young, and something like that is so traumatizing.”

 

“I know,” Frank said, squeezing Gerard’s hand. “I’m glad he chose to stick with us. He’s like an annoying little brother.”

 

“Too bad I already have one of those,” Gerard replied, jabbing his thumb back to his annoying little brother who gave them an innocent look and then jogged up to join them.

 

“Pete and I were talking,” he said, “and we decided we’re like a big Hogwarts family. You and Frank are the parents – “

 

“I’m your _brother_.”

 

“And then Ray’s the weird uncle, Josh, Ryan, and I are the kids, and Pete and Brendon are the children’s obnoxious boyfriends.” Mikey smiled proudly.

 

“Sounds pretty accurate to me,” Frank said. “But Gee’s the mum.”

 

.

 

After stopping by Honeydukes and trying to prohibit Brendon from overdosing on sweets, they ended up at Madam Puddifoot’s because Ryan insisted it would give them the “authentic date experience”, which was something that Frank thought they honestly didn’t need. Regardless of Frank’s protests, they were all eight sitting at four tables pushed together, surrounded by pink lace and ruffles on all sides. Frank briefly considered slamming his head into the tabl, but didn’t want to traumatize Josh any further.

 

Much to their collective embarrassment, Brendon was busy acting like a high-class posh lady. “Francesca, my darling,” he said to Frank in an awful impression of a posh accent, “would you be a dear and pass the sugar?”

 

“Fuck no,” Frank replied.

 

“Oh, dear, listen to that horribly offensive profanity from that lovely young woman’s mouth!” Brendon howled.

 

Ryan kicked him.

 

“Why did we ever agree to this,” Frank mumbled to Gerard.

 

“We’re suckers for punishment and Mikey’s very compelling,” Gerard replied. “Besides, it’s fine. As long as I’m with you, I’m pretty much happy.”

 

Frank could have melted into the floor. Instead, he stopped complaining about being stuck there, and instead engaged with the group for the rest of the disastrous, yet entertaining quadruple date. And, although Frank was loath to admit it, it wasn’t the worst date in the world - mostly because it was with Gerard.

 

.

 

The next few days, Frank’s focus shifted to the Quidditch Cup. It was Andy’s last year as the Quidditch captain, since he would be graduating in the spring, and so Andy was determined that they were going to win. They’d beaten Hufflepuff by a good 30 points and Ravenclaw by a good 50 points, so they had a chance. But their next game was against Slytherin and, well, Frank wasn’t quite so sure.

 

“Slytherin’s team isn’t even that good this year,” Gerard said dismissively, and Frank took note of how he said _Slytherin_ instead of _we_ , effectively distancing himself from the rest of his house. “You’ll beat them easily. Especially you, Frankie. You’re really talented.”

 

“Thanks, Gee,” he said, feeling a little embarrassed.

 

He had to do excessive muscle training, which made his arms much more muscular and out of proportion with the rest of his scrawny body. Gerard, at least, found it attractive. He’d run his hands over Frank’s muscles in awe, and Frank would claim that if anyone ever threatened Gerard again he’d break their nose, which would make Gerard actually giggle. He felt so strange, though, like a stranger in his own body with upgraded abilities.

 

On the day of the Gryffindor vs. Slytherin match, Andy called a team meeting. During his introductory speech, he complimented Frank on his dedication, and Frank blushed, feeling somewhat silly. He’d tried his best, of course, but what if it wasn’t enough?

 

He grabbed his broom and headed out, soaring up into the sky. The rest of his team was already up there. Hayley shot him a thumbs-up and Andy gave him his traditional grin and nod as the game kicked off.

 

The bludger came his way almost immediately, as if it was meant for him. He groaned and knocked it out of the way, ensuring there was no one in front of him before he blasted it. He heard the crack of his bat against the bludger and watched as it soared into the sky. _Good_ , he thought. Hopefully he’d get at least a few seconds of a break before it came back to him. But no – it was soaring right back down towards him. _Weird_ , he thought, but he hit it again to the sound of cheering from the crowd. And then he hit it again, and again, and again. The crowd’s cheering decreased every time, as if they were noticing something was up too.

 

He thought briefly about stopping the match and demanding a check on the Bludger, but Hayley looked like she was nearing the Snitch so he knew if he did that he’d just be delaying the match and disappointing the team. _May as well just do this for the team_ , he thought to himself, even though he knew the dangers of messing with a tampered Bludger.

 

The Bludger came back down again, faster this time, like it was actually trying to hurt him. It went straight for his chest, but thankfully he was able to dodge out of the way and slam it as hard as he could. He glanced over at Hayley, who was so close to the Snitch. _No, he’d just have to do this for her –_

 

Screaming. He heard screaming. He looked up above him and it was coming straight for him, right above his head, and suddenly everything went completely black and he heard a crack and he was falling, falling, falling.

 

.

 

He woke up to the gloomy sight of the Hogwarts infirmary. His head was pounding so hard his vision was fading in and out. He gave a moan of pain, and immediately the nurse was there by his side, forcing some liquid into his mouth.

 

“Drink this, it’ll help,” she said.

 

It tasted like _piss_ , Frank thought angrily, but he gulped it down anyway and felt the pain immediately fade away. “What the…” he started, his words fading away in wonder.

 

“It’s just a simple Pain Potion,” the nurse told him. “It should relieve the pain for a little while. By the way, you should be fine. You had a pretty bad concussion, but the Healers were able to get most of the injury and all that’s left is the headache, which we’ll treat with this potion. You’ll probably have a pretty nasty bump, though. Not too much we can do about the cosmetic side.” She grinned.

 

“Okay,” Frank managed. “Um, can I go?”

 

“Sure,” she said, but she handed him the potion. “Take this whenever you need it. And, uh, you’ve got some mates out there. They seem to be very worried about you.”

 

He nodded gratefully, offered a “thank you”, and shoved the potion into his pocket as he exited the infirmary to find Gerard and Mikey standing outside.

 

“Frank,” Gerard said in a voice that was a mixture of love and relief. He walked over to Frank and hugged him tightly, but tenderly, as if he was scared Frank would break if he held him too hard. “You’re okay?”

 

“Did we win the game?” Frank asked.

 

“ _That’s_ the first thing you ask?” Mikey snorted. “Figures.”

 

“Yes, you did. Hayley caught the Snitch just as you were hit,” Gerard said. “It’s not important, though. Like I said, what’s important is if you’re okay.”

 

“I’m fine, Gee,” Frank reassured him. “I just had a concussion that they healed already. Oh, and I had a killer headache, but they gave me some magical potion and suddenly I feel pretty good. Do wizards do illegal drugs - is that it?”

 

Mikey snorted again. Gerard rolled his eyes. “Why don’t you go find your boyfriend, Mikes?”

 

“I’m the message man for the rest of the group,” Mikey said innocently. “Because we all knew that once you were back with Frank there was no way you were leaving him to come report to us, and we had to make sure Frank was all right.”

 

“I’m fine, Mikey, see?” He walked in a straight line towards Mikey and then put his hands over his head.

 

“Are you performing a fucking sobriety test, Frank?” Mikey asked through laughter.

 

“Isn’t that what you do when you have a concussion?” Frank asked, confused.

 

“See, he’s fine,” Gerard said, giggling a little himself.

 

“Fine, I’ll leave the lovebirds alone,” Mikey said. “Sad when even your best friends don’t want you around anymore. I’ve been replaced. Gee’s more important than me…”

 

“Fuck off, Mikey, you dramatic little bastard, you know I love you,” Frank called after him as Mikey walked off. Once he was gone, Frank turned back to Gerard. “I’m fine, Gee. I promise.”

 

“I know, but you scared me to death,” Gerard said, his voice suddenly soft. He was also blinking at an incredibly rapid rate. “When I saw you falling like that and I heard that crack – _fuck,_ Frank, it was like Tyler all over again, and if it had been you – I couldn’t, Frankie, I couldn’t.” There were tears streaming down his face now, and Frank pulled him as close as he possibly could, letting Gerard’s tears soak into his shoulder.

 

“It wasn’t me,” Frank said into Gerard’s hair. “I’m alive, Gee, I’m okay, I’m here with you. It’s okay. I’m never going to leave you, okay?” He rubbed Gerard’s hair, feeling the other boy shake in his arms.

 

“Please don’t ever scare me like that again.”

 

“No promises, but I’ll try my best,” Frank said. “But I’ll always be okay afterwards, okay? You’re stuck with me.”

 

“I guess I can deal with that,” Gerard said, pulling away and wiping his tears off with his sleeve. “We can go now, I suppose. Stop Mikey before he starts some mad rumour that we’re shagging in the infirmary.”

 

“You got it,” Frank said, letting Gerard pull him to the Great Hall.

 

.

 

Ever since their win over Slytherin due to Frank’s sacrifice in not ending the game and getting practically crushed by a Bludger, he was the Quidditch team’s new hero. Andy and Hayley were constantly stopping him in the hallways to give him sweets or congratulate him, as if he was the only one who had done anything. He took it upon himself to return the congratulations to Hayley, since she’d actually caught the Snitch, but she shrugged. “I didn’t almost die, though. Not quite as heroic.”

 

Another difference he noticed was that people seemed to be into him in a way he hadn’t experienced before. He didn’t notice it until Gerard pointed it out. “People are staring at you,” he said.

 

“I’m used to it,” Frank said. “I’m dating Voldemort with red hair, I keep standing up and yelling at people about gay rights, and I’m on a Quidditch team. I tend to get a lot of stares.”

 

“Not that kind of stare,” Gerard told him. “More like the _bloody hell, that boy’s attractive, wish he’d take me back into the Potions dungeon and shag my brains out_ stare.”

 

Frank raised an eyebrow at his boyfriend. “I don’t know about that, Gee.”

 

“Trust me, I know,” Gerard growled under his breath. “And I’m having trouble keeping my temper under control because of it.”

 

“Hush, it’s fine,” Frank whispered, kissing the side of Gerard’s head. “You know no matter what kind of eyes other people give me, I only love you.”

 

“That was almost cute,” Gerard said, turning his head to kiss Frank. He grinned against Frank’s lips. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you were going soft.”

 

But it turned out that Gerard was right. The next day in Potions, some girl who was sitting in front of him turned around and said, “You’re Frank Iero, right?”

 

“Right,” Frank confirmed, wondering why she would want to know, considering she’d never talked to him before.

 

“I’m Anna,” she offered, as if this should have been somehow relevant to him. “I heard about your bravery in the Quidditch game, and honestly, bravery is such a turn-on for me. Weird, right, cause I’m a Slytherin. Anyways, you’re gorgeous, and I was wondering if you’d want to go on a date sometime? Maybe not a date, even just sitting together in the Great Hall, whatever you’d like.”

 

Frank stared at her blankly. “…I have a boyfriend. And I’m gay.”

 

“Your boyfriend doesn’t have to know,” Anna said suggestively.

 

“I’m not interested in cheating, thanks,” Frank said, fixing his eyes firmly back onto the cauldron in front of him and pointedly ignoring her.

 

“Suit yourself,” Anna said with a shrug.

 

This pattern continued over the next few days, with girls approaching him in the hallways with notes and winks and sometimes even their Muggle cellphone numbers, which was a level of desperation Frank wasn’t aware people could sink to. Frank found it a little amusing, that the school’s most eligible bachelor for women was a very obviously gay boy. Gerard, however, did not see things his way.

 

“I swear, I don’t see how these people don’t realize that you’re mine,” Gerard said, putting his arm around Frank.

 

“You need some sort of grand statement like you two do for everything else,” Mikey said.

 

“Yeah, you could just go up there and fuck in front of the whole school,” Brendon suggested.

 

“I’m vetoing that idea,” Mikey said quickly.

 

“I could make an announcement about catching you in the Potions closet…” Pete began.

 

“Also vetoed,” Mikey interrupted.

 

“You’re killing all our options here, Mikey,” Frank bemoaned.

 

“None of your options should involve something sexual or explicit in any way with my _fucking brother_ ,” Mikey informed him.

 

“Okay, then how about a sex tape?” Frank suggested.

 

Mikey hit his head on the table.

 

“Or we could just play to our strengths,” Gerard said. “Such as our strongest gossiper here, Mr. Brendon Urie. Brendon, do you think you could spread a rumour that I’m going to use my Voldemort magic on whoever tries to hit on my boyfriend?”

 

“Let me check my appointments,” Brendon answered. “Hm, I may just be able to pencil you fuckers in.”

 

After Brendon’s big, probably embellished rumour hit the school, people started avoiding Frank a little more. Frank honestly didn’t care. It was kind of a relief to not have people staring at him, and it made Gerard a lot happier, which was always a plus.

 

It was, however, a little suspicious that some first year saw him in the hallways, said “Death Eater!” and ducked behind some statue. But such were the consequences of love, Frank figured.

 

.

 

The rest of the year went quickly in a flurry of exams and revision. Over the past four years, Frank had at least improved at revision, meaning that he didn’t simply blow off his work and expect to do okay. It took a lot of coaching from Ray and Gerard, but he got even better results on his exams than he had the last year and started to think that maybe he wouldn’t completely bomb his OWLs the next year.

 

Once he got home, he realised that he would have to think of a plan to get his mum to let him visit Gerard and Mikey this year. She would probably spew something about Gerard being his boyfriend now and things being “different” and him needing to stay away from temptations, even though Mikey was literally the biggest cockblock in the entire world.

 

When he asked, of course, his mom raised an eyebrow. “What kind of mother would I be if I let you stay in the same house as your boyfriend without supervision?”

 

Frank stared at her, confused. “Both of Gerard’s parents are there. And his little brother, Mikey. It’s not just going to be me and him alone, you know.”

 

She raised an eyebrow. “He could come here.”

 

“But then I wouldn’t be able to see Mikey, and he’s my friend too,” Frank pleaded. “Please? I don’t even have to go for a week; I can go for just a few days if you want. I just miss them a lot. Please, Mum?”

 

She sighed. “Fine. But only for a few days, and you are to make sure you are constantly being supervised. And when I call you, you are to pick up no matter what you’re doing. Got it?”

 

“Of course, Mum,” Frank said, kissing her quickly on the cheek and darting up the stairs to go grab his trunk.

 

It wasn’t that different being at the Ways’ when he was Gerard’s boyfriend. Mrs. Way, of course, gave him a little speech about boundaries and appropriateness and being sure not to hurt Gerard who was _very_ sensitive. He nodded and agreed because yes, he knew this already, and he wasn’t planning on doing anything with Mikey there anyway, because Mikey would probably be scarred for life.

 

After throwing himself on Gerard and Mikey and a bit of debate on what to do, the three boys settled on _The Conjuring 2_. Frank rested his head on Gerard’s shoulder, as usual, and Gerard slung his other arm around Mikey’s shoulders. It was nice, Frank thought, like actually being a part of the wild family Mikey had decided they were a while back.

 

After a little while, Mikey got tired and went up to bed, leaving the two of them alone on the couch. They kissed for a little bit, and then Gerard said, “This summer has been hell without you.”

 

“It’s somehow even worse being apart now that we’re dating,” Frank said unhappily. “I miss you all the time.”

 

“Me too, Frankie,” Gerard said, kissing his jaw. “Just a little while longer.”

 

“And then it’s your last year,” Frank said quietly.

 

“It is.” Gerard frowned. “I’ll come back to visit, though. My whole life is there.”

 

“What are you thinking about doing after school?” Frank asked.

 

“Honestly, I was thinking about going to art school,” Gerard said.

 

Frank sat still for a moment, surprised. The two of them hadn’t really discussed the future much, but he’d always assumed pure-blooded Gerard who had absolutely zero experience in the Muggle world would choose a wizarding job. “But you have such good grades. You could get a decent job right out of school, and…”

 

“I know,” Gerard replied. “But I’m just… I’m average at magic and everything, but it’s not my passion, you know? It’s nice to have magic, but what I want to do is art. It makes me so happy, Frankie. Almost as happy as you make me.” He grins.

 

“If it makes you happy, Gee, then go for it,” Frank said. He knew that no matter what Gerard chose to do, he’d be amazing at it, and the comics Gerard had shown him were pretty damn amazing. “But, question – you don’t have any high school records. What are you going to apply with?”

 

“This isn’t the first time a Hogwarts student has gone to Muggle university, Frankie,” Gerard explained. “They’ll forge some school records for me. It’ll be just like I’m a Muggle university student.”

 

“Okay,” Frank said, biting his lip. “But you’ve got a lot to learn if you’re going to go to Muggle school.”

 

“But Frankie, I’m so good at Muggle things!” Gerard whined. “Um… there’s that book of faces or whatever, soccer, not ever leaving the ground, taking an impossibly long time to do simple tasks…”

 

Frank snorted. “You’re going to need my help, Gee.”

 

Gerard grinned, pulling Frank close against him. “I’ll send you owls every day. You’ll get sick of me contacting you.”

 

“Never,” Frank whispered, kissing him lightly on the cheek.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to Advocate+For+Armageddon for your hilarious comment! Your comment gave me the motivation to post this chapter.
> 
> Only one more chapter left! If you're reading this, please let me know with a comment :) It'll motivate me to get that last chapter up and finish up this bad boy!


	5. Year Five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Minor trigger warning for past rape in this chapter. Not much detail, but it's definitely mentioned.

When Frank got home, he decided that he had a goal for the rest of the summer, and that goal was to get his first tattoo. He’d always imagined himself being covered in tattoos, and he wasn’t going to let something as irrelevant as age keep him from starting his collection.

 

Thankfully, one of his friends from back in elementary school had gone a little mad over the past few years and was in the business of selling fake IDs. With his allowance from the past few weeks and a little extra cash from his birthday, he told his mum he was going on a short date with Gerard and took a cab downtown to a shady looking shop that hopefully wouldn’t question him too much (since he did, after all, still look about thirteen). Much to his delight, they gave him a few weird looks but didn’t question him.

 

It hurt a lot, but it looked beautiful on his chest, just above his nipple. He’d put a flame to signify the flame in his heart that would never go out and below, and underneath, he’d put _hope_ – a signifier for the hope that Tyler Joseph should have had, the hope that Gerard Way gave him, the hope that he hoped to share with everyone else. It was perfect.

 

Putting his shirt back on caused him a good bit of pain, but he had to cover it up or his mother would probably kill him. He figured he’d cover it till he was 18 and his mum had no real say in what he did with his body anymore – although it might be difficult if they decided to go swimming. He hadn’t really considered that. _God_ , he was the stereotype of the impulsive teenage boy.

 

For the rest of the summer, he developed a fair amount of skill at deflecting his mother and successfully hid the tattoo from her. But there was one person he wasn’t planning on hiding the tattoo from at all.

 

After a rather dramatic reuniting with Gerard at the Hogwarts Express station that involved equally as many dramatic gagging noises from one Mikey Way, the ride to Hogwarts was filled with Frank thinking an awful lot about how to show Gerard the tattoo and whether it would be awkward and whether Gerard would be angry that Frank hadn’t told him, even though they’d talked all summer through texts and group chats.

 

“Frank,” Ray said after a little while of Frank constantly bouncing his knee. “You’re usually quite hyperactive, but this is getting to be a little excessive. Something bothering you?”

 

“Nope,” Frank said, gritting his teeth. “Just excited for this coming year.”

 

Gerard looked at him like he had gone mad. Frank ignored it. Mikey laughed. “I suppose you think we’ll win the Quidditch Cup this year again. Maybe the House Cup too, as long as you and Pete don’t do anything to mess up our chances at that again.”

 

“I’ll have you know that last year it was _probably_ not me that put bubble bath in the boys’ toilets,” Pete said. “So it’s totally unfair that I got blamed for it and they subtracted like a million points from Gryffindor.”

 

“Probably not you?” Josh asked, raising his eyebrows.

 

“I mean, I don’t remember it,” Pete explained.

 

“Well, at least you don’t have Brendon in your house,” Gerard said. “I’m fairly sure he lost points for us with every class he attended.”

 

“The professors ask for respect, yet they refuse to respect me,” Brendon complained. “I think their logic’s a little faulty, if you ask me.”

 

Ryan buried his head in his hands. “No one did.”

 

The group continued to bicker all the way to Hogwarts. Gerard insisted that having Brendon Urie in your house was the biggest detriment to the House Cup possible, but Mikey told him that having _both_ Frank and Pete in his house was double the detriment so that meant he won.

 

“They’re worse than you think,” Mikey explained.

 

“My sweet Frank?” Gerard asked, sounding dubious.

 

Thankfully, Mikey didn’t gag this time. Instead, he rolled his eyes and then launched into a convoluted tale about some stupid prank that Pete and Frank had pulled off back in second year that Frank had tried to block out, since it had ended with Frank in his underwear in front of a good portion of the first year Hufflepuff girls and Pete laughing so hard he cried. Frank buried his head in his arms, hiding his flaming face, but he kept tapping his feet and imagining possible scenarios in which he revealed the tattoo to Gerard and Gerard got legitimately angry.

 

He was extremely glad by the time they arrived at the Hogwarts station. This time, seeing the Thestrals pulling the carts didn’t scare him quite as much, and this time he had Gerard there beside him, tracing patterns into his palm. Mikey and Pete were there again, blabbering on about something mindless, but at least Gerard was there.

 

“I should’ve been with you last year when you saw them for the first time,” Gerard whispered into his ear, squeezing your hand. “I’m sorry. We were being so daft.”

 

“Extremely,” Frank said, squeezing his hand back. “But I’ll forgive you, I guess – if I have to.”

 

“Arse,” Gerard said fondly, kissing Frank’s cheek.

 

“Excuse me,” Mikey said in a pompous voice. “This is a public area, Gerard and Frank. This simply isn’t the place for such disgusting displays of affection.”

 

“Homophobe,” Frank shot back.

 

.

 

Once they got to Hogwarts and endured the always fun Sorting Ceremony, in which Harry Potter’s actual kid turned up and was sorted into Frank’s house (which was somewhat incredible, Frank had to admit, even though he’d just recently figured out the whole convoluted Harry Potter tale), Frank finally got Gerard alone in their dorm room. The others had meandered off to welcome the first years or whatever they did on the first night of classes. Thankfully, Frank’s boyfriend wasn’t quite so social or welcoming.

 

“You’ve been very bizarre today,” Gerard said, giving his boyfriend a stern look. “I take it you have a good explanation.”

 

“You’d be correct,” Frank said, a smirk dancing across his features. He sighed and then stripped off his robes and shirt, leaving a confused Gerard standing in front of him. (Because _of course_ it would be his boyfriend that would look super confused rather than excited or like, at least happy when their boyfriend stripped in front of them.) Finally, Gerard’s eyes made their way down to Frank’s tattoo.

 

His jaw practically dropped to the floor. He met Frank’s eyes, his eyes full of wonder and surprise and something Frank couldn’t fully read – happiness, he hoped, but Gerard was sometimes strange about these things. “Is that real, Frankie?”

 

Frank nodded, feeling the lump in his throat grow a little bigger.

 

“Fuck, Frank,” Gerard said, his voice pained. He stepped forward. “You have no idea how attractive you are right now.”

 

Frank stared at him in surprise. “You like it?”

 

“Well, I didn’t expect it, since you’re still so young,” Gerard said, pulling Frank to him. “But tattoos have always been attractive to me. And on you…”

 

He didn’t finish his sentence. Instead, he kissed Frank fervently and with ferocity Frank hadn’t really experienced before. It was unexpected, to say the least, but Frank wasn’t complaining.

 

Not one bit.

 

.

 

Gerard and Frank’s first anniversary was coming up, and Frank had no idea what to do.

 

Since Mikey had been his best friend from first year on, he asked Mikey. It turned it out, though, that asking Mikey for advice was the worst idea. Mikey told him that he and Pete always tried to one-up each other for the worst anniversary gift, and that was their tradition, which of course Pete had come up with. He suggested that Frank try and buy something awful for Gerard. Frank just stared at him blankly and told Mikey that it was odd that he didn’t know his own brother well enough to get him a gift.

 

Mikey shrugged. “You know him just as well as I do. You know how weird Gee can get about gifts and shit.”

 

Brendon and Pete were even worse, though Frank realized his own blunder in going to Pete for advice since his advice was similar, but more explicit, than Mikey’s. Brendon simply said, “Just fuck him, bitches love that,” and left it at that. Frank wanted to bang his head on the table.

 

Ryan was a little more helpful. “Usually on anniversaries people do something that means a lot to the person they love,” Ryan said. “It’s a way of showing them that you love them and only them, you know? So it should be personal.”

 

“But what do I do for Gerard?” Frank asked with a frown.

 

“I don’t know your and Gerard’s relationship in particular, so I don’t think I could tell you,” Ryan said. “But I know you’ll think of something. Something that means a lot to the two of you.”

 

There were a lot of things that meant a lot to Frank and Gerard, though, so Frank still didn’t feel confident in choosing something to do or give on their anniversary. He went back in his head, remembering the day they’d gotten together and how fucking Mikey had to shove them in a closet to get them to talk to each other. None of it was particularly romantic. What was more meaningful to him was the relationship they’d built over the past four years, the friendship that had slowly turned into something more, the solid support Gerard had been in his life over the past few years.

 

It hit him then like a ton of bricks what he needed to do.

 

.

 

Their anniversary started out with someone’s owl flying in and dumping a dozen roses on Frank’s head.

 

Frank groaned and playfully glared at his boyfriend. “Gee, you really need to stop taking advice from Mikey.”

 

“I think you look adorable,” Gerard said playfully, grabbing a rose off of Frank’s head and then cringing in pain. “Fuck. I forgot to get the thornless roses.”

 

“No wonder there are 11 sharp pains in my head,” Frank remarked dryly.

 

Gerard squeaked in pain as he tried to remove the roses from Frank’s head. Pete mumbled something about relationship goals under his breath, and Mikey kicked him.

 

The rest of the day was filled with other small things like that from Gerard. He placed a drawing of Frank as a vampire on his desk, which was admittedly pretty badass. He slipped a short note into one of Frank’s pockets. He gave him a chocolate frog after his last class of the day. It was the cutest thing Frank had ever seen, so cute it was almost sickening, and he suddenly felt like his contribution to the day was inferior.

 

After dinner, Frank pulled Gerard into his dorm room and locked the dorm room door behind them, knowing it wouldn’t keep his annoying roommates out but it would at least give them time to prepare if anyone walked in. “Gerard,” he said. “First of all, happy anniversary. The past year has been one of the best of my life. I love you so much. I know I’m not great at talking about feelings and shit, but I just wanted you to know that you mean the world to me. I’m so glad you’ve been in my life for four years now and I can’t imagine it without you. And I can’t really keep talking or I’ll probably embarrass myself, but I wrote it in this letter. And I got you all of the Star Wars series on DVD. I’m going to need you to watch them over Christmas holidays.”

 

Gerard laughed, sounding close to tears, before kissing Frank deeply. When he pulled away, he mumbled, “I love you, Frankie.”

 

“Me more,” Frank said. “And don’t fight me on that, because we are _not_ becoming ‘that’ couple.”

 

.

 

Frank’s birthday that year was even more chaotic, with Mikey, Pete, and Brendon insisting that he needed a ‘real’ birthday party for his sixteenth and taking it upon themselves to throw a costume party that included copious amounts of alcohol and somehow more people than the last year. Frank just rolled his eyes and let it happen. No use in arguing with three of the world’s most stubborn people.

 

“I tried to stop them,” Gerard said apologetically. “They don’t listen to me, though.”

 

“I listen to you,” Frank said. “Well, sometimes.”

 

“Sounds kinky,” Brendon said with a huge wink.

 

“Fuck off,” Frank groaned.

 

Navigating the party was proving to be a huge issue, though. He’d ended up going as Dracula, which was entirely uncreative but went pretty well with Gerard’s drawing of him, and Gerard went as some pasty dead zombie, which meant they were the undead couple of the party. He was trying to monitor all of his friends’ alcohol intake at once, but considering that when exposed to alcohol Pete, Brendon, and Gerard all went a little mad, it was a huge job that he wasn’t really up for.

 

“Gee, you’ve already had like five beers,” Frank said, rubbing his boyfriend’s head.

 

“It’s your birthday, I wanna celebrate,” Gerard slurred. “Happy birthday, Frankie. Did I tell you that already? I love you. I wanna drink some more.”

 

Frank sighed. “I think I’m going to take Gerard to his room now. Ryan, Josh, Ray – please keep an eye on these fools. Don’t let them drink themselves silly.”

 

“It’s a little too late for that,” Ray said, motioning to where Brendon was strutting on top of a table.

 

Frank ran a hand through his hair. “Ryan, please keep your boyfriend under control.”

 

“On it,” Ryan said, and Frank pulled a still very drunk Gerard out of the common room and to the Slytherin dungeon, where he threatened some first year to let him in. (He didn’t have to do too much threatening, admittedly; the girl seemed scared of him already and squeaked out the password. It wasn’t his proudest moment.)

 

Once he got Gerard to stop babbling about how much he loved Frank and fall asleep, he headed back to his party, since he did think it was a little bit strange to leave his own party less than halfway through, even for his boyfriend. As soon as he got there, though, Mikey Way practically tackled him.

 

“What’s going on?” he asked, confused. “Please don’t tell me you got completely pissed too.”

 

“No,” Mikey said hurriedly. “I need to talk to you, though. Like extremely badly. Code red, Frank. Code fucking red.”

 

Frank shrugged and led Mikey to a quiet corner. “Okay, now tell me. The hell’s going on?”

 

“Well, you know how Pete got completely wankered, right?” Mikey said. “He’s been talking and talking all night and I don’t know how to get him to stop. Well, now he’s gone and told me his big secret for why he doesn’t want to be touched and – Frank, he was _raped_ when he was just a child. One of his family members. He said he’s never told anyone and I… I don’t know what to do.”

 

Frank felt like he’d been electrocuted. It was such a personal secret for him to know about his friend, and he knew Pete probably didn’t want anyone knowing, especially since he’d only told Mikey once he was thoroughly pissed. He sat for a second in silence. The only thing he could think to say was, “Mikey, why the fuck are you telling me this?”

 

“I don’t know,” Mikey said, running a hand through his hair. “I’m not great with secrets anyway, and I just don’t know what to do. He probably wouldn’t even want me even knowing this if he was sober. I feel so bad – but it explains so much, Frank.”

 

Frank sighed. It did make sense, and it gave him a new understanding of Pete Wentz – one he still felt like he shouldn’t _have_. “Mikey, I feel like the best course of action here is to be honest with him. Just let him know that you know and that you’re here for him, and you won’t tell anybody. I don’t usually like lying, but in this situation – you probably should not mention that you told me. I’m sure you two can work something out.”

 

“It kind of hurts,” Mikey said. “We’ve been together for a while now and the only way he can tell me is when he’s drunk. About something this major, too. Something that affects the both of us.”

 

“I know,” Frank said, and suddenly he was grateful for the boy sleeping upstairs, the boy who was an open book and couldn’t tell a lie to save his life. “It’s got to be tough, though. I… I’m not sure I’d be able to tell people either. Especially someone you love that much.”

 

Mikey gave a small half-smile and a nod, then pulled Frank in for a short, bony hug. “Thanks for helping me. Sorry to, you know, ruin your birthday.”

 

“You know I’m here for you, Mikey Way,” Frank said, grinning. “Now go and help Ryan get Brendon down off the fucking bar. He’s making an absolute fool of himself, Merlin help him.”

 

.

 

Ever since Andy had graduated the previous year, Quidditch was very different. First of all, Frank had been offered the captain position, but he refused it, knowing he wasn’t that great at being motivational and would probably just scream a lot. He wasn’t that great at Quidditch, either; he was just good at causing scenes, which caused people to think he was loads better than he actually was. After Frank’s refusal, the position was offered to Hayley Williams, who accepted happily, and that was the end of it.

 

Hayley was grateful for the position, and Frank knew she was much better at being an inspirational captain than Frank could ever be. Still, it was different not having Andy there to do nod and grin at him whenever he did something right and walk with him to SAGD meetings after practice. He should really stop befriending seventh-years, he grumbled to himself. Too bad his boyfriend was a seventh-year. Poor planning on his part.

 

After practice one day, Hayley called him to stay after. Confused but knowing she was, in fact, his captain, and could ask him to do such things, he waited until everyone cleared out. She grinned at him. “Don’t worry, you’re not in trouble.” When Frank raised an eyebrow, she laughed. “I promise. I just… you’re a good kid, Frank Iero.”

 

He thought about protesting that she was only a year above him and therefore didn’t really have the clearance to be calling him a kid, but he figured since he was so small that it was an easy mistake to make. He also wondered why she was telling him this and why she’d thought to call him to stay after practice in order to tell him this. It was all quite strange. “Well, uh, thanks, Hayley.”

 

“When I was younger, I was so ashamed about feeling attracted to girls and boys,” Hayley said. “And, you know, I was a little hesitant about the SAGD meetings at first, especially when there were so few girls like me. But as time went on, I became more and more comfortable both with the people and who I was. So I just wanted to thank you. Oh, and thank your boyfriend too. He’s a good person.”

 

“You’re very brave,” Frank told her. “All of us have to be. You make Gryffindor proud.”

 

“Shut up,” Hayley said, blinking rapidly. “I’m trying so hard not to cry already, and you’re not helping one bit.”

 

Frank laughed and hugged her. “Just tell me if anyone talks shit about you. I’ve got a solid right hook from all these years of Beater training.”

 

.

 

Christmas holidays rolled around, and Frank was stuck at home without Gerard again. And, of course, on the one day they’d planned a date, a literal blizzard kept Frank inside and away from Gerard.

 

 _I can Apparate us somewhere,_ Gerard texted. _But a lot of places are closed so I don’t know where you’d want to go. Also anywhere outside would be like walking through a wall._

_Just apparate here ill explain to my mum_ , Frank answered.

 

“Can my boyfriend come here?” Frank asked his mum.

 

“Frank, how’s he going to get here? It’s a literal blizzard out there. It’s not safe,” his mother pointed out.

 

“ _Mum_ , we’re magical,” Frank said, rolling his eyes. “He can just Apparate here.”

 

“I don’t know what that means, Frank, and you know that. But if it’s some sort of magical teleportation, I suppose it should be fine. Just if you go in your room or somewhere private, leave the door open. So I can pretend to be a good mum.” She grinned and ruffled his hair.

 

Gerard showed up an hour later, thankfully unharmed. He’d always been talented in Apparation, which was turning out to be a useful skill. Frank was suddenly very grateful that his boyfriend was seventeen and able to perform magic without the Trace on him. “Hey, Frankie,” said boyfriend said, beaming.

 

Frank kissed him gently on the lips and then pulled him into the den. “We’re going to watch Star Wars, because Merlin knows you probably haven’t started it yet.”

 

Gerard looked guilty. “I’m sorry, Frankie. I’ve just been freaking out over art school applications, and I’m supposed to hear back from my dream school soon, and I’ve been drawing a lot too, so I haven’t –“

 

Frank put his finger on top of Gerard’s lips, silencing him. “It’s fine, Gee. Don’t worry about it. I figured as much.” He grinned. “That’s why we’ll watch it today.”

 

And so they did. Frank started him with the fourth movie, since he insisted the movies had to be watched in the order of release rather than the order in which the story actually took place, and the two of them sunk into the intricate universe that George Lucas had created.

 

Just as Frank knew Gerard would be, Gerard was enthralled. He asked a few questions every now and then, mostly about the universe lore, and Frank, with all of his dedication to the series, was able to answer them. After the first film, Gerard grinned at Frank. “Can we watch the second movie now?”

 

“It just gets more addicting,” Frank warned him, but he put the second movie on anyways. Since Gerard didn’t know much about the series and was not entrenched in Muggle culture like Frank had been, he was shocked by the reveal that Darth Vader was Luke’s father, and it was one of the most adorable things Frank had ever seen.

 

After they finished the third movie, Frank’s mother called them down for dinner. Gerard looked fairly nervous, even though Frank told him that his mother loved him already and there was no need for any kind of nerves.

 

“Good to see you, Gerard,” Frank’s mum called as Gerard entered the kitchen and took a seat. “You’d better be treating my Frankie right.”

 

“I try my best,” Gerard said shakily.

 

“Frank’s a vegetarian, as I’m sure you know, so I made some meatless spaghetti and garlic bread,” his mum said. “I hope that’s all right.”

 

“Sounds wonderful to me,” Gerard said, sitting down at the table alongside Frank.

 

Frank rolled his eyes. “Gerard will eat about anything, Mum. He’s not all allergic and special dietary needs like me.” Gerard made a squeaking noise and elbowed Frank, who just laughed and made Gerard a huge plate of spaghetti.

 

The three ate and chatted about the past semester. Frank’s mum bullied Gerard into agreeing that he would monitor Frank during the coming semester to make sure Frank studied for his very important exams, which made Frank huffy. The two boys then tried to explain Quidditch to his mum, who just kept getting more confused about flying brooms and flying balls and _what did they mean boys fell off brooms occasionally?_

 

After dinner, much to Frank’s chagrin, Gerard had to head home. Before he headed out, Frank’s mum went up to Gerard and whispered something in his ear, to which Gerard just nodded serenely.

 

As Frank went to see Gerard off, he gave him a raised eyebrows _what the hell_ look. “What did she say to you?”

 

“Nothing important, Frankie,” Gerard said, kissing him quickly. “I’ll see you in a few weeks, okay? I love you. Don’t forget that.”

 

“I love you too,” Frank said as Gerard disappeared.

 

.

 

The two of them kept texting during Christmas holidays about life and school and _Star Wars_ and of course, also texted in the group chat with all the people from their Hogwarts friend group, which was always quite entertaining. Frank knew, though, that Gerard was supposed to hear back from his art school soon, and when Gerard didn’t bring it up, Frank figured that was a no. His heart hurt for his boyfriend, but he knew that it would turn out all right. Perhaps Gerard could become an assistant professor or something. Gerard would be a great nutty professor.

 

When Gerard and Frank finally met up again, though, Gerard was beaming from ear to ear. “Frankie, I have news.”

 

“Go for it,” Frank said.

 

“I got in to my dream school,” Gerard said. “I’m going to art school next year!”

 

Frank laughed, pulling him close. “Bloody hell, Gee, you scared me. When you didn’t tell me, I figured you’d been rejected and you just didn’t want to tell me.”

 

Gerard poked his bottom lip out. “I wanted to surprise you, Frankie. Tell you in person.”

 

“I’m proud of you,” Frank said, nestling his head into Gerard’s shoulder. “My boyfriend’s going to be a motherfucking _professional_ artist. I can’t believe it. You’re going to be fantastic.”

 

Gerard kissed him then, and of course Mikey had to interrupt with a gag. Frank shot him a glare. “Where’s your boyfriend, Mikey Way?”

 

“Present,” Pete said as he ran up, practically tackling Mikey. Frank raised an eyebrow at the uncharacteristic display of affection from Pete Wentz, but his heart warmed a little bit. Perhaps Pete was finally working through his issues with physical affection. Mikey was beaming from ear to ear, which made Frank grin in return. Gerard squeezed his hand.

 

The worst part about returning to school after Christmas holidays, though, was the fact that right after Christmas holidays came the anniversary of that fateful day two years ago. He’d never forgotten, of course, not about Tyler, not about that day, and he still occasionally had nightmares. He was sure it was worse for Josh, but he didn’t know how to talk about it with Josh, so the two usually avoided the subject.

 

On the day before the anniversary, though, he and Josh were working together in the library. He felt as though it was imprudent to avoid the subject any longer, so he cleared his throat, catching the attention of his friend. “Josh,” he said. “Two year anniversary’s tomorrow.”

 

Josh bit his lip. “I know. I want to do something, but…”

 

“They shouldn’t be able to forget this easily,” Frank said. “Not while we can’t.”

 

“Yeah,” Josh said quietly. “What can we do, though?”

 

“I think we’ve overused the public interruption thing,” Frank said with a laugh. “So I’m not sure. Maybe… okay, this is going to seem crazy, but vandalism.”

 

“Vandalism?” Josh raised his eyebrows.

 

“Something simple,” Frank said. “Remember Tyler Joseph.”

 

“Remember Tyler Joseph. I like it.” Josh paused. “We’re _definitely_ going to need to plan, though. Can’t have you plunging your house into the bottom of the House Cup competition again. Or me.”

 

.

 

Since Frank was the one with a whole host of disciplinary issues already, in contrast to the goody-two-shoes Josh Dun, he volunteered to do the deed. He snuck out of his room late at night, trying to use as little light as possible with a weak Lumos spell, and used a simple spell to carve _REMEMBER TYLER JOSEPH_ into the wall along one of the main hallways. He heard someone behind him screeching about students out of bed and hightailed it back to his room, hoping they wouldn’t be able to trace the spell back to him.

 

In the morning when everyone woke up, Frank and Josh tried to act just as surprised as everyone else. Frank tuned in to what everyone else was saying, though, and heard, “I bet it was that Iero kid.”

 

“Of course it was,” someone else said with a snort. “He’s obsessed with the dead boy. Probably ‘cause he watched him die.”

 

“I’m surprised they haven’t caught him yet.”

 

“They can’t without proof, and Iero’s always in trouble so he probably covered his tracks well.” More laughter.

 

Frank grinned lazily, turning back to Gerard. “I’m already the number one suspect.”

 

“I knew it was you the minute I saw it,” Gerard said, slipping his arm around Frank’s shoulders.

 

“I can’t get in trouble if they don’t have any proof,” Frank said confidently.

 

And he was right about not being able to get into trouble, judging by the looks the professors shot Frank throughout the day, though none of them actually said anything to him. He acted like a model student. He answered questions in classes, wore a sweet smile, and thanked Merlin that none of them had thought to check the recent spells on his wand through the Trace.

 

“All hell’s going to break loose when Frank turns seventeen and the Trace is removed,” Mikey muttered when Frank mentioned this to him.

 

“Thankfully, I won’t be here,” Gerard said, kissing the top of Frank’s head. “Have fun, Mikes.”

 

The reminder served its purpose, though. Everyone thought about Tyler for the first time in months, maybe years, and all the little first and second years who had been spared from the tragedy were told the story of the second-year boy who had been bullied to the point of suicide. If it stopped even one person from bullying or changed even one person’s mind, Frank felt he had done his job.

 

.

 

After a long stream of what felt like endless OWL preparations and useless papers, suddenly it was April and Gerard turned eighteen. Frank felt ancient all of a sudden, remembering the first time he’d seen Gerard at the King’s Cross Station. He remembered being a little in awe of the boy with the dark hair and his little brother and how effortlessly they knew everything about magical society. He remembered telling Gerard he liked his tie, and how mundane that little detail seemed now in the grand scheme of everything they’d been through together.

 

It was his turn to throw a party since Gerard had thrown him one for two years in a row, so he collaborated with Pete, the undisputed king of Gryffindor parties. He tried to get Pete to keep it as small and low-maintenance as possible, since he knew that was how Gerard would want it. Of course, though, Pete wouldn’t make it that easy for him.

 

“You have to have more than twenty people, Frank, or it’s not really a party,” Pete whined.

 

“I think twenty is a reasonable amount,” Frank retorted. “Gerard gets kind of nervous when there’s a lot of people, so it’s like a happy medium.”

 

“Happy medium, my arse,” Pete muttered. “A happy medium for me is like, fifty.”

 

“Twenty-five,” Frank amended.

 

“I _guess_ I can work with that,” Pete groaned.

 

The amount of people that showed up at the party was actually closer to thirty, but Frank decided to let it go since Pete had, after all, planned most of the party. Gerard did seem very surprised when Frank led him in, squeezing his hand. “Happy birthday, Gee,” Frank said with a grin.

 

“A party… for me?” Gerard asked, looking surprised. “Are all these people here for me?”

 

“Well, most of them,” Frank said. “Some of them came for Pete and slash or free alcohol. But most of them are here for you.”

 

Gerard giggled as Frank led him over to his cake. “I got you chocolate cake. You mentioned a while ago it was your favorite, so I hope that hasn’t changed.”

 

“No, it hasn’t changed in the past month and a half,” Gerard said with a small laugh. “God, Frank, you’re too good to me. I don’t know what I did without you for two entire years.”

 

Frank smiled and grabbed two slices of cake, one for each of them. “Good thing you’ll never have to be without me again,” Frank said, guiding them to a table in the middle of the room.

 

Brendon, of course, plopped down next to them. “This party is fantastic. Really a great job. I’m tempted to dance on the bar again, honestly, and I only do that at the best parties. Happy birthday, Gee, by the way.”

 

“Thanks, Brendon,” Gerard said, taking a bite of his cake. “I feel old, though.”

 

“No, you’re in the prime of your life,” Brendon said. “You’re young and wild and free, so live a little, Gee.” He started singing at the end of his proclamation, his voice going into a range Frank hadn’t ever really heard a human hit before. He was honestly surprised that their glasses didn’t shatter. “Now let’s go drink.”

 

He brought back a few beers for the three of them. Gerard took one immediately, downing it fairly quickly in comparison to Frank and even in comparison to Brendon, and then grabbed another cup. Frank looked at him curiously, but Gerard just shrugged. “I’m legal now.”

 

“I don’t think that’ll go over well with McGonagall or your professors,” Frank said. “We have class tomorrow. Don’t go too wild, please.”

 

“Thanks, Mum,” Gerard said, taking a long sip.

 

Unfortunately, his boyfriend didn’t heed his warning, because he just kept going to the point that Frank had to physically remove the drink from him. He was glad for all the Beater training, because Gerard had an incredibly strong grip when he was holding on to something he didn’t want to let go of.

 

“Frankie, I’m not done drinking yet,” Gerard whined.

 

“If you drink any more, you’re going to black out,” Frank scolded him. “Eat some more cake, and then say goodbye to everyone. I think you should probably go to bed soon.”

 

“Don’t be a bitch,” Gerard retorted, sounding strangely coherent.

 

Frank chose not to dwell on that little dig, instead just shaking his head and murmuring, “You know I love you, Gee. I just want you to stay safe.”

 

“I’ll be okay, Frankie,” Gerard said. “I’m more fun when I’m drunk anyways.”

 

Frank narrowed his eyebrows. “You’re much more fun when you’re sober, bastard. Now come on.”

 

He forced some cake into Gerard’s mouth in hopes it would help him sober up. Afterwards, he told Pete he was going to get Gerard to bed and that he’d be back to help clean up, to which Pete, who was pretty out of it anyways, simply nodded.

 

He got Gerard to his room with a little help from a halfway sober Brendon Urie and then stared at him. “Gee, what’s going on?”

 

Gerard, who seemed a little more clear-headed after eating, just stared back at him.

 

He sighed. “Gerard, you know I love you no matter what, but you just told me that people like you better when you’re drunk. Can you tell me what the hell was going through your head?”

 

“I’m too shy,” Gerard mumbled, holding his head in his hands. “I feel better when I have some alcohol in me; it helps me to loosen up.”

 

“I get that, Gee, I really do,” Frank said, sitting down beside him on the bed. “But you don’t have to drink yourself silly. And I certainly don’t think you’re any fucking better of a person when you’re drunk. In fact, I like you better sober.”

 

“Okay, Frankie.”

 

Frank kissed him quickly. “Get some rest. I’m going to help the rest of those mad people get back safely and clean up. And happy birthday again. I’ll save you the rest of the cake.”

 

The next day at breakfast, Gerard was extremely grateful when Frank showed up with a cup of coffee and the other half of the cake. Frank just smiled and hoped it wouldn’t happen again.

 

.

 

As the year winded down and the Gryffindor Quidditch team won the Quidditch cup again, this time without any serious injuries, Frank had to confront the awful reality that his boyfriend would be leaving soon. His boyfriend would be heading off to the unknown world of Muggle art school, and Frank wouldn’t be there to protect him anymore. It was a scary reality.

 

He tried throwing himself into his books, but it was no use. His thoughts wandered off far too much to a place he wasn’t quite prepared for. And of course, he was reminded of it constantly during everyday life.

 

A couple of weeks before school got out, they had their last meeting of GASD for the year. Frank wasn’t quite prepared for it, but that feeling only intensified once Gerard started talking.

 

“As many of you know, I’m graduating,” Gerard said. “It’s been a crazy three years, and I’m so glad I got to be your president. I think a lot of progress has happened in the years we’ve been active. Still, there’s so much left to do. And that’s why I’m leaving the club in the most capable hands I know. And you can tell me I’m biased, because I sure as hell am, but I know that my boyfriend, Frank Iero, has done so many amazing things when he hasn’t even been the president, and I know that he’ll keep doing amazing things in the years to come. I feel confident saying that this is the best decision I could have made.”

 

Frank looked at Gerard in shock. He hadn’t even really considered the fact that the club would need a new president, and he especially hadn’t considered the fact that the new president could be him. And yet here he was, accepting an honour that he’d never expected. He blinked a few times. “T-thank you,” he stuttered, still not fully processing what was happening. “I’ll try to live up to your reputation, Gerard, but I don’t think I ever really can. We’ll do our best, though.”

 

“You’re too modest,” Hayley piped in, grinning at him. “You’re going to do an amazing job.”

 

“You will,” Brendon said. “And we’ll be here to kick you back up if you fall down – I mean, pick you back up.” He winked at Frank, and Frank knew it hadn’t been a mistake.

 

Frank suddenly had the feeling that the next two years were going to be pretty damn good – even without Gerard.

 

.

 

Gerard graduated in a sea of fanfare with six NEWTs. Mikey grumbled about how much he had to live up to, but Frank felt his heart swell with pride as he watched the man that was probably the love of his life walk across the stage, his hair still a fiery red, and accept his Hogwarts diploma that would serve as the gateway to the rest of his life.

 

After the ceremony, the graduates were supposed to sail away on boats like the ones that they first came to the school on in their first year, but Gerard skipped out on that, calling it trite sentimentality anyways, and went to sit on the grass with Frank, still in his graduation robes.

 

“Fucking hell, Frankie, I’m a graduate,” Gerard said, sounding dazed.

 

“My graduate,” Frank murmured, putting his head on Gerard’s chest. “Proud of you, Gee. But you know that.”

 

“I’m going to Muggle school in a few weeks.” He still didn’t sound convinced. Frank wasn’t fully convinced he was either.

 

“You’ll do fine. Just don’t go too into detail about your previous school experience or anything. And weasel your way out of any conversation about anything related to Muggle culture, you hopeless fool.”

 

“Oh, well, I don’t think I can help myself from going into detail about my gorgeous previous school boyfriend,” Gerard said, leaning over to kiss him. Even still, Frank thought, even after almost two years, his breath still caught in his throat like the very first time. He pulled away, resting their foreheads together. “You’ll be okay without me here, Frankie. In fact, you’ll be more than okay.”

 

“I know,” Frank said. “But I’m going to miss you like hell every day of it. Stay away from fucking alcohol, you hear me? And any break you have, you come back here to visit me. No excuses.”

 

Gerard laughed, his breath ghosting Frank’s face. “I’ll sneak in somehow. Get past the top-notch security.”

 

“You’d better,” Frank warned. “Or you’ll have to worry about me, and I’m a whole fucking lot scarier than some lameass security.”

 

He kissed Frank again. “I love you so much, Frank.”

 

“I love you too,” Frank replied, smiling against Gerard’s mouth.

 

“God, I’d hope so.”

 

“Now you’d better start kissing McGonagall’s arse so she lets you visit, you hear me?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, that's it, ladies and gents! (Aka the five people who are probably still reading this story.)  
> If you enjoyed, please leave a comment and let me know. I might do some other oneshots and things in this universe. Some ideas I had were: a oneshot about the group chat with the Hogwarts group, a oneshot about Mikey confronting Pete about what Pete told him while Pete was drunk and how their relationship changed, a little more exploration of the GASD club, or a story about Gerard in college dealing with alcoholism and being away from Frank. If any of those ideas sound interesting to you, please let me know!  
> Thank you so much for reading.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone! This is the first chapter of the monster fic I've been working on! Thankfully, I've already finished the full story so you shouldn't have to wait too long for the next chapter. They just have to be edited and stuff. But comments will definitely, definitely encourage me to put up the next chapter sooner rather than later!  
> They're all supposed to be British (aside from Frank, who's kind of mixed up), but I'm American af, so forgive me for minor Americanisms. If there's anything super glaringly American, feel free to let me know so I can edit that out!  
> Also, I'm going to let everyone know right now that the upcoming chapters have a MAJOR TW for suicide and a minor TW for rape (not shown or anything, just a mention).  
> Thank you so much for reading! Please comment/kudos if you enjoy so I can keep updating.


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